China locks down Shenzhen city of 17 million after record outbreak of COVID cases in two years

China announced this Sunday the confinement of the southern city of Shenzhen, with 17 million inhabitants, due to the increase in COVID cases in recent days, the municipal government said in a statement.

Residents of Shenzhen, one of the country’s main technology hubs and home to companies such as Huawei and Tencent, will have to undergo three nucleic acid tests in an attempt to stem the curve of cases.

The city authorities, who reported more than 60 new cases on Saturday and more than 300 in total during the last month, assured that the confinement will extend from tomorrow Monday until the next day 20, during which time they will only be allowed “essential tasks” such as those related to the supply of water and electricity.

Those who do not work in this type of sector must do so from home, and they must also close commercial stores with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies and medical institutions.

Transportation in Hong Kong’s neighbor Shenzhen, which has also seen a dramatic rise in cases in the past month, will be kept “at a basic level” for the city to stay supplied.

Residential buildings will remain in quarantine, and the inhabitants will only be able to leave without express permission, the text adds.

The latest wave of COVID has raised alarms in China and also affects the metropolis of Shanghai, whose authorities today asked residents not to leave the city if it is not strictly necessary.

China is facing a new wave of cases related to the contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus: in the latest count published today, 1,938 new positives and another 1,455 asymptomatic cases were detected on Saturday, since Beijing does not count them as confirmed cases unless show symptoms.

The total number of active infections in mainland China amounts to 5,461, six of whom are serious, according to the latest count by health authorities published today.

Most of the cases of this latest wave have been registered in Jilin province, in the northeast of the country, with 1,412 positives recorded today. Its provincial capital, Changchun, of nine million residents, is completely confined.

Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, at the forefront of the country’s COVID prevention efforts, called the surge “serious and complicated” and urged local health authorities to do everything possible to control the transmission of the virus.