An air of déjà vu?
A district of the city of Guangzhou in southern China was confined on Saturday.
Local authorities are trying to contain an increase in coronavirus cases.
Twenty cases of Covid-19 were reported last week in this industrial center in northern Hong Kong, which has a population of some 15 million.
A notice from the Guangzhou Municipal Health Bureau released on Saturday identified five streets in Liwan District in the city center as "high-risk areas" and ordered their residents to remain confined until drug tests. door-to-door operations are completed.
Massive screening tests
Markets, schools and entertainment venues in this area have been closed.
Local authorities have started mass screening tests of the population which had included 700,000 people until Wednesday.
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The emergence of cases in Guangzhou is linked, according to local health officials, to a 75-year-old woman with the variant that appeared in India.
The Asian giant, the first country struck by the pandemic at the end of 2019, has since largely contained the disease but has tightened restrictions after a resurgence of the pandemic in neighboring countries.
China has a total of 91,061 cases and 4,636 deaths, according to the latest figures from the National Health Commission.