China imposes fresh lockdown in Changchun after new outbreak of COVID cases

A significant rise of COVID-19 cases in the northeastern city of Changchun prompted China to impose a lockdown of the city's 9 million residents on March 11. Residents are being asked to stay at home and go through three rounds of mass testing, while non-essential businesses have been closed and transportation links have been disrupted. It is pertinent to point out that China was the first country in the world to impose a lockdown in the city of Wuhan following the outbreak of COVID in 2020, in what has also been debated as the origin of the virus. 

Despite earlier signals that authorities would be taking more targeted measures, the latest lockdowns, which also include Yucheng in the eastern province of Shandong, demonstrate China is adhering to the harsh approach to the pandemic it has been enforcing for most of the past two years.

On Friday, China recorded 397 new instances of local transmission across the country, with 98 of them in Jilin province, which includes Changchun, the country's auto manufacturing capital. Since the outbreak began late last week, there have been over 1,100 cases across the province.

Changchun has reported 78 COVID cases

On Friday, only two cases were reported within Changchun, bringing the total number of infections in recent days to 78. Under China's "zero tolerance" policy to the pandemic, authorities have repeatedly vowed to close down any neighbourhood where one or more cases are discovered. A total of 93 cases have been confirmed in the nearby city of Jilin, which shares the same name as the province. Authorities have already imposed a partial curfew in the city and cut off travel connections to nearby places.

(With agency inputs)