The National Health Commission reported 1,337 locally
transmitted cases in the latest 24-hour period, including 895 in the industrial
province of Jilin. A government notice said that police permission would be
required for people to leave the area or travel from one city to another.
The hard-hit province sent 7,000 reservists to help with the
response, from keeping order and registering people at testing centers to using
drones to carry out aerial spraying and disinfection, state broadcaster CCTV
reported.
Hundreds of cases were reported in other provinces and
cities along China’s east coast and inland as well. Beijing, which had six news
cases, and Shanghai, with 41, locked down residential and office buildings
where infected people had been found.
“Every day when I go to work, I worry that if our office
building will suddenly be locked down then I won’t be able to get home, so I have
bought a sleeping bag and stored some fast food in the office in advance, just
in case,” said Yimeng Li, a Shanghai resident.
While mainland China’s numbers are small compared to many
other countries, and even the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong, they are the
highest since COVID-19 killed thousands in the central city of Wuhan in early
2020. No deaths have been reported in the latest outbreaks.
Hong Kong on Monday reported 26,908 new cases and 249 deaths
in its latest 24-hour period. The city counts its cases differently than the
mainland, combining both rapid antigen tests and PCR test results.
The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, said authorities would not
tighten pandemic restrictions for now. “I have to consider whether the public,
whether the people would accept further measures,” she said at a press
briefing.
Mainland China has seen relatively few infections since the
initial Wuhan outbreak as the government has held fast to its zero-tolerance
strategy, which is focused on stopping transmission of the coronavirus by
relying on strict lockdowns and mandatory quarantines for anyone who has come
into contact with a positive case.
The government has indicated it will continue to stick to
its strategy of stopping transmission for the time being.
Officials on Sunday locked down the southern city of
Shenzhen, which has 17.5 million people and is a major tech and finance hub
that borders Hong Kong. That followed the lockdown of Changchun, home to 9
million people in Jilin province, starting last Friday.
On Monday, Zhang Wenhong, a prominent infectious disease
expert at a hospital affiliated with Shanghai’s Fudan University noted in an
essay for China’s business outlet Caixin, that the numbers for the mainland
were still in the beginning stages of an “exponential rise.”
China’s vast passenger rail network said it would cut
service significantly, and both China Railway and airlines said they would
offer free refunds to people who had already bought tickets. Shanghai suspended
bus service to other cities and provinces.
Shanghai has recorded 713 cases in March, of which 632 are
asymptomatic cases. China counts positive and asymptomatic cases separately in
its national numbers. Schools in China’s largest city have switched to remote
learning.
In Beijing, several buildings were sealed off over the
weekend. Residents said they were willing to follow the zero-tolerance policies
despite any personal impact.
“I think only when the epidemic is totally wiped out can we
ease up,” said Tong Xin, 38, a shop owner in the Silk Market, a
tourist-oriented mall in the Chinese capital.
Much of the current outbreak across Chinese cities is being
driven by the variant commonly known as “stealth omicron,” or the B.A.2 lineage
of the omicron variant, Zhang noted. Early research suggests it spreads faster
than the original omicron, which itself spread faster than the original virus
and other variants.
“But if our country opens up quickly now, it will cause a
large number of infections in people in a short period of time,” Zhang wrote
Monday. “No matter how low the death rate is, it will still cause a run on
medical resources and a short term shock to social life, causing irreparable
harm to families and society.”