In China's largest city, Shanghai, a lockdown lasting several days is now being imposed due to the sharp rise in the number of corona infections, which first affects the eastern and then the western part of the city.
As the city administration announced on Sunday, the eastern half of the economic metropolis will go into lockdown for five days from Monday.
From Friday it's the western half's turn.
Meanwhile, the residents should be tested for the corona virus.
China is pursuing a strict zero-Covid strategy and is responding to regional hot spots with drastic measures.
Due to a severe corona wave fueled by the Omicron variant, millions of Chinese are currently affected by tough lockdowns.
The authorities in the metropolis of Shanghai, which has a population of 25 million, had previously taken less harsh measures.
There were rotating two-day lockdowns for individual neighborhoods.
Even on Saturday, the authorities had declared that they wanted to forgo a comprehensive lockdown.
A “complete shutdown” of Shanghai would mean “many international cargo ships would be adrift in the East China Sea,” said a representative of Shanghai’s corona crisis team.
"This would have an impact on the entire national and global economy."
Shanghai and the northeast Chinese province of Jilin are the regions most severely affected by the current corona wave in China.
For Shanghai, the authorities reported 2,269 new infections with the corona virus on Saturday.
This corresponds to around 40 percent of all new infections registered nationwide.