China’s Daily Covid Tally Hits Record High Since 2020; Beijing & Shanghai Shut, Lockdown In Zhengzhou

New Delhi: China’s daily COVID-19 cases have climbed to the highest since the pandemic began in 2020, official data showed Thursday. The country recorded 31,454 domestic cases, 27,517 without symptoms on Wednesday, the National Health Bureau said. The new hike comes despite the government persisting with a zero-tolerance approach involving lockdowns and travel restrictions. The infections are relatively small when compared with China’s vast population of 1.4 billion and the caseloads seen in Western countries at the height of the pandemic.

The surge of infections comes amid violent protests in Zhengzhou iPhone factory complex, which is under COVID restrictions for over a month amid spiralling cases in its worker dormitories.

In Beijing, malls and parks were shut and once-bustling areas of the capital resembled ghost towns as authorities urged people to stay home as case numbers hit a new high on Tuesday. In Shanghai, a city of 25 million that was locked down for two months earlier this year, China’s top auto association said on Wednesday it would cancel the second day of the China Automotive Overseas Development Summit being held there over COVID concerns. Chengdu, with 428 cases on Tuesday, became the latest city to announce mass testing, according to a News 18 report.

Major manufacturing hubs Chongqing and Guangzhou have seen persistently high infection numbers, accounting for most of China’s caseload. Cases in Guangzhou fell slightly on Tuesday to 7,970 and authorities have said infections continue to be concentrated in key areas of Haizhu district.

The Covid measures are darkening the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy and dampening hopes that China would significantly ease its outlier COVID stance any time soon, as China faces its first winter battling the highly contagious Omicron variant.

The International Monetary Fund urged China to further recalibrate its Covid-19 strategy and boost vaccination rates, the report added.