China ordered a lockdown of the 9 million residents of the northeastern city of Changchun on Friday, citing an increase in COVID-19 cases in the area.
A significant increase in COVID-19 cases in the northeastern city of Changchun prompted China to place the city’s 9 million residents under lockdown on March 11. Residents are being asked to remain at home and undergo three rounds of mass testing, while non-essential businesses have been closed and transportation links have been disrupted. It is worth noting 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, where the virus’s origin has also been debated.
On Friday, China reported 397 new cases of local transmission across the country, with 98 of them occurring in Jilin province, which surrounds Changchun.
Only two cases were reported in Changchun on Friday, bringing the total number of infections in recent days to 78. Authorities in China have repeatedly vowed to close down any neighbourhood where one or more cases of the pandemic are discovered, as part of the country’s “zero tolerance” policy toward the pandemic. In the nearby city of Jilin, which shares the same name as the province, a total of 93 cases have been confirmed. Authorities have already imposed a partial curfew in the city and have cut off access to nearby areas.
