China’s Covid Outbreak Flares, Fueling Fears Of Wider Spread
(Bloomberg) -- China reported more Covid-19 infections in its current epicenter, putting pressure on authorities to tame the outbreak before it spills over into some of the country's most economically important areas.
The eastern province of Anhui reported 231 Covid cases for Monday, with the tally since late June topping 1,000 infections. Authorities locked down Si county and one neighboring county late last week to carry out mass testing and to try and stop the virus from spreading, and pledged on Monday to stop community spread in the next three days.
Read more: China's New Covid Flareup Threatens Crucial Yangtze Delta Region
Still, the virus is already spreading through the Yangtze Delta region that accounts for a quarter of China's economy and is home to key hubs for medicine to semiconductor chips and e-commerce.
Jiangsu province, the second-biggest contributor to China's economic output and a globally significant manufacturing hub for the solar sector, reported 66 local cases for Monday. That includes 34 in the biotech hub of Wuxi city, which has already suspended dine-in services at restaurants and closed entertainment venues. Shanghai, which neighbors Jiangsu, reported eight local cases Monday, with one infection found outside government quarantine.
The growing clusters around the region come swiftly after earlier outbreaks in mega cities Shanghai and Beijing were brought under control and have raised concerns about whether authorities will deploy lockdowns to tame the flareup. President Xi Jinping last week reaffirmed the country would stick to Covid Zero and said China would rather endure some temporary impact on economic development than let the virus hurt people's safety and health.
Read more: Lockdown Pain Fails to Break Elderly Vaccine Resistance in China
China's manufacturing activity has only just started to rebound as the country rolled back Covid restrictions. While authorities haven't yet locked down the biggest regional hubs to curtail the current outbreak, any escalation in restrictions threatens to have a global impact.
Elsewhere, Xi'an city, the provincial capital of the northwestern Shaanxi province, said it will start a week-long citywide Covid control from Wednesday. Entertainment venues including bars, cinemas, and gyms will be closed for seven days, while dine-in services at all restaurants will be halted. Universities in the city will be under closed management while other schools will start their summer vacation early.
The restrictions came after the provincial disease control center said it detected the BA.5 omicron sub-variant in its recent outbreak, state media China National Radio reported earlier Tuesday. The BA.5 sub-variant is more infectious than the BA.2 variant found in earlier outbreaks, the report said.
Nationwide, China reported 335 new cases, with Beijing detecting three and Fujian reporting seven. Elsewhere, Macau added 89 new infections, taking the total number of cases in the current outbreak to 941.
(Updates to add details in seventh paragraph.)
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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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