New Omicron variant reaches China - More than 100 million people affected by lockdowns

Created: 07/07/2022, 05:15

By: Sven Hauberg

The new omicron variant BA.5 was detected in the city of Xi'an (archive image).

© STR/AFP

China is sticking to its zero-Covid strategy - although the new Omicron variant BA.5 is now also spreading in the country.

Countless people are affected by lockdowns.

Munich/Xi'an - The new omicron variant BA.5 has led to a corona outbreak in China for the first time: In the central Chinese city of Xi'an, the authorities have registered several sources of infection since the beginning of the week;

18 infections with the omicron variant of the coronavirus were counted from Saturday to Tuesday.

The city administration reacted with a rigorous lockdown: shops, schools, cinemas and restaurants in the metropolis of 13 million were closed for a week on Wednesday.

Wedding celebrations have been banned, and only a limited number of mourners can attend funerals.

The city was also divided into low, medium and high risk areas.

In high-risk neighborhoods, people are not allowed to leave their homes, even in the lower-risk areas, people should stay at home.

If you want to leave the city, you have to show a negative corona test.

The measures are intended to “quiet society as much as possible, reduce mobility and lower the risk of infection,” the city said.

"The subvariant omicron BA.5 is even more transmissible and spreads even faster than the earlier subline BA2.2, and it has an even stronger ability to escape vaccines," news site Cnwest.com quoted infectiologist Zhang Yi of the Center for Disease Control as saying and Prevention of Shaanxi Province, in which Xi'an is located.

The city, near which the world-famous Terracotta Army was discovered, was put under a drastic lockdown for a month at the end of last year after thousands of corona cases were discovered.

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Lockdowns have affected more than 100 million people in China

In many other parts of China, too, the authorities are using lockdowns and exit restrictions to counter mostly smaller corona outbreaks.

At least 114.8 million people across China were affected by full or partial lockdowns as of Monday, according to estimates by Japan's Nomura Bank.

Last week, 66.7 million people were affected.

Even in China's largest and economically most important city, Shanghai, residents in some residential areas were not allowed to leave their houses.

Mass testing has been launched in more than half of Shanghai's districts.

After a few cases in the vicinity of karaoke bars, all such establishments in the city have been closed for the time being.

Chinese authorities are still pursuing a strict zero-Covid strategy, with individual outbreaks being dealt with immediately through lockdowns and mass testing.

The Chinese economy is only just recovering from the effects of a month-long lockdown in Shanghai and the consequences of strict corona restrictions in the capital Beijing.