More cities across China order partial Covid lockdowns
- The latest curbs include a city on the Russian border that shut down businesses for three days over a single case and a port at the other end of the country
- Meanwhile the country’s zero-Covid policy means millions must queue for PCR tests in the middle of a heatwave that has seen temperatures pass 40C
These include Jiamusi, a city on the border with Russia, which ordered businesses and public venues to shut down for three days, effective from 9am on Saturday, after reporting a single case.
Meanwhile Beihai, a coastal city of 1.8 million people in Guangxi, began to lock down two of its three districts from 7am on Saturday, placing restrictions on 84 communities classified as high-risk areas and 68 others as medium-risk. As of Friday, 218 infections had been recorded in the city, all asymptomatic.
The previous day, Huaiyuan county in Anhui locked down its population of almost a million people after reporting 151 infections on Thursday.
In total, mainland China reported 450 new Covid-19 cases for Friday, of which 75 were symptomatic and 375 were asymptomatic, according to the National Health Commission.
That compares with 432 and 292 cases over the previous two days.
There were no new deaths, keeping the nation’s death toll to 5,226. As of Friday, mainland China had confirmed 227,272 symptomatic cases.