Rising covid cases in China spark further lockdowns
Covid flareups are being reported across the world’s most populous nation, with a three-day mass testing of millions of citizens in Shanghai underway, the 13m people in the northwestern city of Xian back under partial lockdown and growing numbers of cases reported in the capital, Beijing.
Japanese bank Nomura has estimated that at least 114.8m people are under full or partial lockdown nationwide as of Monday, a sharp jump from last week’s 66.7m.
With the lifting of Shanghai’s two-month-long lockdown last month, there was speculation that China’s leadership might ease its zero covid policy. What has emerged in the intervening weeks is a more dynamic, localised approach to stamping out flareups, with housing compounds or municipal districts targeted rather than city-wide clampdowns.
“Even if there are more lockdowns, we expect these to be a lot more localised than the ones in March to May, as the government is trying to balance controlling COVID and growing the economy,” a new report from Dutch bank ING speculated.
