(TibetanReview.net, Mar14’22) – China’s zero-tolerance Covid strategy appears to have failed with the province of Jilin, with a population of 24 million, and the tech hub of Shenzhen, with a population of 17 million, having both been put under complete lockdown today. The authorities reported 2,300 new virus cases nationwide on Mar 14 and almost 3,400 a day earlier, the highest daily figure since the pandemic’s initial outbreak in Wuhan two years ago, noted the AFP Mar 14.
The Shenzhen lockdown has led to a key factory making iPhones to close down while Covid restrictions were spreading across Shanghai and other major cities. Shenzhen is one of ten areas nationwide to issue some level of stay-at-home order, the report said.
“There have been many small-scale clusters in urban villages and factories,” Shenzhen city official Huang Qiang has said at a Mar 14 briefing. “This suggests a high risk of community spread, and further precautions are still needed.”
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported Mar 14 that of the 1,337 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases reported by the National Health Commission that day, 895 were in Jilin, 92 in Shandong, 79 in Guangdong, 60 in Shaanxi, 51 in Hebei, 41 in Shanghai, 40 in Tianjin, 16 in Jiangsu, and 12 in Gansu.
The latest spikes in Northeast China’s Jilin, East China’s Shandong, South China’s Guangdong provinces, Shanghai and Beijing municipalities, which forced several major cities to go into lockdowns, saw a sharp rise in the number of asymptomatic patients, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Mar 13.
The report said many local cases had been reported across the nation in the past month. From Feb 10 to Mar 13, the number of confirmed domestic cases increased from seven to 1,807, affecting 26 provinces and regions.
The report said Jilin Province, one of the hardest hit places, had registered more than 2,100 positive infections in a day on Mar 13, with 1,412 confirmed cases and 744 silent carriers.
Jilin’s provincial capital, Changchun, was stated to have imposed a total lockdown, with the city of Jilin having conducted six rounds of citywide nucleic acid testing.
Authorities were working round-the-clock to construct in six days a 6,000-bed makeshift hospital expected to be completed within six days, reported Moneycontrol.com Mar 14.
India, meanwhile, reported 2,503 new infections over the past 24 hours, the lowest in 680 days, according to the country’s Health Ministry data updated this morning.
At 36,168 (0.08% of the total), India’s current active caseload is the lowest in 675 days, noted the PTI news agency Mar 14.