Covid-19: China confines a city of nine million inhabitants

Europe 1 with AFP 07:38, March 22, 2022

Chinese authorities on Tuesday decreed the confinement of a city of nine million inhabitants, as China faces its worst epidemic outbreak since 2020, which is straining its zero Covid strategy.

The industrial city of Shenyang (north-east), where many factories are located, including that of the German car manufacturer BMW, now confines its inhabitants to their residences.

The city is the capital of Liaoning province, bordering that of Jilin, which is by far the epicenter of this current epidemic wave, due to the Omicron variant.

Nearly 5,000 positive cases nationwide

The Chinese Ministry of Health announced Tuesday 4,770 new positive cases nationwide.

Very low figures in comparison with other countries in the world, but high for China and its zero Covid strategy.

Thanks to confinements, quarantines on arrival in the territory or even tracing of movements, the country has stemmed the epidemic for two years, allowing the Chinese to live an almost normal life.

But this strategy, which has saved human lives (officially 4,638 dead since the start of the pandemic), weighs on the economy of the Asian giant.

President Xi Jinping called last week to "minimize" the impact of the outbreak on the economy, while ruling out any significant easing of the zero Covid strategy.

Confinements by building in Shanghai

In Shanghai, where the number of new positive cases is nevertheless several hundred per day, the authorities are thus opting for very targeted confinements of buildings, instead of a general confinement of the whole city.

In Jilin, the most affected province, authorities announced on Monday that 10,000 doses of Pfizer's anti-Covid drug had arrived.

This is believed to be the first time Paxlovid has been used in China.

Since last week, the province has imposed travel restrictions.

The inhabitants cannot leave their commune and several cities confine the population to their homes.

The technological metropolis of Shenzhen (south), 17.5 million inhabitants, announced Monday a gradual lifting of its strict confinement, after having already relaxed restrictions to minimize the impact on factories and its port.

China's health ministry had reported on Friday that just 51% of over-80s in mainland China had received at least two doses of the vaccine.

A source of concern, because in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong (south), a major epidemic outbreak is overwhelming hospitals and decimating the elderly.