No fewer than seventeen million people in the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen began their first full day under lockdown Monday morning, with restrictions also imposed in Shanghai and other major cities in an effort to stamp out the biggest threat to the nation’s zero-tolerance Covid strategy.
Africa Daily News, New York gathered that the southern city took the measures on Sunday as authorities battled an Omicron flare-up in factories and neighbourhoods linked to nearby Hong Kong, which is recording scores of daily deaths as the virus runs rampant.
Reports has it that Shenzhen is one of ten major areas nationwide to issue some level of stay-at-home order.
Health officials have warned tighter measures could be on their way, as concerns mount over the resilience of China’s ‘zero-Covid’ approach in the face of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.
Authorities reported 2,300 new virus cases nationwide on Monday and almost 3,400 a day earlier, the highest daily figure in two years.
Read Also: China Records Highest COVID-19 Cases In Nearly Two Years
‘There have been many small-scale clusters in urban villages and factories,’ Shenzhen city official Huang Qiang said at a Monday briefing.
‘This suggests a high risk of community spread, and further precautions are still needed.’
Tech stocks tumbled on the Hong Kong exchange in early trading Monday, as concerns over the impact of the virus spread in Shenzhen — a hub for iPhone maker Foxconn, as well as Huawei and Tencent — spooked investors.
In Shanghai, China’s largest city, residential areas as well as offices in some neighbourhoods remained sealed off on Monday morning, as city authorities pushed out drastic measures to avoid a full lockdown.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that the city reported around 170 new virus cases on Monday, enough to seed anxiety among businesses over the economic pain ahead.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
