Lockdown in China amid Omicron fears
The Hindu
Despite zero COVID policy, cities report fresh cases in run up to Winter Olympics, Chinese New Year
Several cities in China have locked down hundreds of thousands of their residents and carried out mass testing amid concerns that the spread of the Omicron variant could threaten the country’s “zero COVID” strategy.
Cities in central Henan province as well as the municipality of Tianjin in the north, near Beijing, have reported local spread of Omicron cases, prompting the sweeping measures. The timing is of particular concern for China’s authorities with both the Winter Olympics in Beijing and the annual Chinese new year holiday in the first week of February.
Henan accounted for most of the 110 new local cases reported in China on Monday – a high number for a country following a “zero COVID” approach including continued restrictions on international travel for close to two years – with the rest and in northwestern Shaanxi.