Millions more Chinese ordered confinement to fight Covid outbreaks | China

Anyang residents were ordered to return home and banned from driving on the roads, according to the state Xinhua news agency. Non-essential businesses have been closed. Also in Henan, Zhengzhou City has closed schools and kindergartens and banned dining at restaurants, while Yuzhou remains locked up.

Xi’an city in northern China is in its third week of strict confinement, while Shenzhen in the south implemented specific lockdowns of some housing complexes and launched a mass testing campaign.

In many Chinese cities, public and long-distance transportation has been reduced or suspended, including several flights from the US.

Tianjin is of particular concern to the authorities because of its proximity to Beijing, and officials have vowed to fulfill the city’s role as a “moat” to protect the capital. The origin of the Omicron strain is eluding officials. Zhang Ying, deputy director of the city’s CDC, said recently that it may have been spreading “for some time” before it was detected.

With the Winter Olympics just around the corner, concerns are mounting and rumors are circulating about more severe restrictions to come. On Saturday, a 39-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly spreading false information about plans to shut down Beijing’s popular Sanlitun party district, and on Tuesday, Beijing’s organizing committee rejected rumors of plans to shut down some or all of it. the city during the games. . Deputy Director Huang Chun said the Omicron variant was spreading rapidly around the world, but that the “closed-loop” system for athletes, employees and other assistants was working “smoothly” and there was no need to adjust it unless there was a bud inside him.

In Hong Kong, where a relatively small number of Omicron cases have also been detected, authorities have reportedly planned to ban all international transit passengers from about 150 locations. Bloomberg reported Monday that the ban would be extended to air passengers from “Group A” countries, which have been designated high-risk, from January 15 to February 14. According to Bloomberg, diplomats, government officials, athletes and personnel traveling to the Games would be exempt from the ban.

China is under pressure to maintain its official commitment to a zero covid strategy that has been called into question by the latest outbreaks and Omicron cases. As of December, officials claimed to have fully vaccinated more than 82% of the population. However, there are concerns that Omicron has a substantial ability to evade immune responses and that current vaccines are less effective.

China uses Sinovac and Sinopharm, two domestically developed and produced vaccines based on inactivated viruses. Dr Daryl Cheng, medical lead at Melbourne’s Vaccine Education Center, said there were concerns that these types of vaccines appear to have a higher rate of Omicron infections.

“We are caught in a perfect storm at the moment when Omicron is significantly infectious and in places like China where they may have a higher rate of advanced infections,” Cheng told The Guardian.

“It puts the population at significant risk of infection … [and] if it opts for Covid-zero, it puts more pressure on resources. “

Cheng said that Sinovac and Sinopharm, like all vaccines currently in use, were developed before Omicron appeared, so they were all expected to have reduced effectiveness, as are vaccines against newer flu variants, which they are adjusted every year.