Chinese workers urged not to travel home for Lunar New Year as fresh Covid-19 outbreak hits factory hub

Name: People line up in snow for Covid-19 testing amid outbreak in northern China border city
Uploaded: 2021-12-12T12:00:16.000Z
Duration: 1 min 24 s
Description: People line up in snow for Covid-19 testing amid outbreak in northern China border city

Nearly 80 per cent of the country’s latest locally infected Covid-19 cases found in manufacturing powerhouse province of Zhejiang

Several local authorities step up pandemic controls and call for ‘unnecessary’ travel to be put on hold

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A deserted railway station in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on January 28, as the pandemic disrupted 2021 Lunar New Year travel. Photo: Xinhua

Ji Siqi

Published: 8:00pm, 12 Dec 2021Updated: 8:21pm, 12 Dec 2021

Chinese workers have been urged not to make “unnecessary” trips home for Lunar New Year for the second consecutive year, as authorities nationwide tighten Covid-19 preventive measures after confirmed infections surged in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

As many as 47 – or nearly 80 per cent – of China’s 59 locally infected cases reported on Saturday were in Zhejiang province, according to the National Health Commission.

The northern region of Inner Mongolia, which has been battling an outbreak for weeks, accounted for 10 cases.

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People line up in snow for Covid-19 testing amid outbreak in northern China border city

The latest cluster in the cities of Ningbo, Shaoxing and Hangzhou in Zhejiang involved 139 local infections in the past week, the provincial government said on Sunday.

Various local authorities in the province have tightened preventive measures in view of the outbreak, including restrictions on indoor activities. All schools in Zhenhai district in Ningbo switched to online teaching from Wednesday, while Shangyu district in Shaoxing was put under lockdown on Saturday afternoon, with no vehicles or people allowed in or out unless absolutely necessary.

Zhejiang, a coastal province on the East China Sea, is a major manufacturing powerhouse and home to tech giant Alibaba and Ningbo-Zhoushan port, the world’s largest in terms of cargo tonnage. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

Medical workers take swab samples for Covid-19 testing at a market in Hangzhou on December 10. Photo: Xinhua

During the last wave of the pandemic in Zhejiang in August, a confirmed case among workers at the port put a key terminal under lockdown for two weeks, causing shipping congestion and wreaking havoc on the global supply chain.