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In response to the latest of a succession of outbreaks that have put Beijing’s zero-tolerance policy toward COVID-19 to the test, the country of China placed 1.7 million people under lockdown in the central province of Anhui. On Monday, authorities there reported over 300 new cases.
The nation, which is the last developed nation to adhere to a zero-Covid strategy, treats every incident with stringent isolation guidelines and rigorous testing programmes.
The Anhui outbreak, where authorities initially discovered hundreds of cases last week, comes as the Chinese economy is starting to recover from a months-long shutdown in Shanghai and disruptive Covid restrictions in the nation’s capital Beijing.
More than 1.7 million people of two province-wide counties—Sixian and Lingbi—were told to remain inside their houses and were only allowed to exit if they were undergoing testing last week.
CCTV footage from the weekend showed Sixian’s streets deserted and people waiting in line for the sixth round of the city’s mass testing.
China’s National Health Commission reported 287 new infections in the province on Monday, including 258 cases of persons who showed no symptoms, bringing the total number of cases to just over 1,000.
In a statement released by the Anhui government on Monday, provincial governor Wang Qingxian pleaded with local officials to “seize every minute and diligently conduct swift screening” in addition to prompt quarantine and reporting of cases.
On Monday, four cities in the neighbouring Jiangsu province reported a total of 56 new local infections.
Despite the fact that the number of instances is still small in comparison to China’s enormous population, officials maintain that the zero-Covid policy is required to avert a healthcare emergency, citing the uneven distribution of medical resources and the poor immunisation rates among the elderly.
However, the plan has severely hurt the second-largest economy in the world, and the harsh enforcement has led to sporadic protests in the strictly regulated nation.
Some foreign families and enterprises with the financial wherewithal have also started to make escape preparations as a result of China’s isolation from the rest of the world.
Last month, national officials announced a lowered quarantine standard for foreign arrivals, which spiked most Asian markets as investors thought the change would help Beijing’s Covid-slumped economy.
Lei Zhenglong, a health official, said the new quarantine policy was “definitely not a relaxing of (Covid) prevention and control.”
