China records nearly 3,400 daily virus cases in worst outbreak in two years
India Today
China reported nearly 3,400 Covid-19 cases on Sunday, the highest in two years. The fresh outbreaks have forced authorities to impose lockdowns on virus hotspots.
Chinese health authorities reported nearly 3,400 Covid-19 cases on Sunday, double the previous day, forcing lockdowns on virus hotspots as the country contends with its gravest outbreak in two years.
A nationwide surge in cases has seen authorities close schools in Shanghai and lock down several northeastern cities, as almost 19 provinces battle clusters of the Omicron and Delta variants.
The city of Jilin has been partially locked down, with hundreds of neighbourhoods sealed up, an official announced Sunday, while Yanji, an urban area of nearly 700,000 bordering North Korea, was fully closed off.
China, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, has maintained a strict 'zero-Covid' policy enforced by swift lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing when clusters have emerged.
But the latest flare-up, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant and a spike in asymptomatic cases, is challenging that approach.
Zhang Yan, an official with the Jilin provincial health commission, admitted Sunday that local authorities' virus response so far had been lacking.
"The emergency response mechanism in some areas is not robust enough, there is insufficient understanding of the characteristics of the Omicron variant... and judgment has been inaccurate," he said at a government press briefing.
