THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 6, 2022 at 12:11 JST
A woman gets her routine COVID-19 throat swab at a coronavirus testing site in Beijing on Sept. 5. (AP Photo)
BEIJING--China has locked down 65 million of its citizens under tough COVID-19 restrictions and is discouraging domestic travel during upcoming national holidays.
Most of the 21 million people in the southwestern city of Chengdu are confined to their apartments or residential complexes, while in the eastern port city of Tianjin, classes have been moved online after 14 new cases were reported, all but two showing no symptoms.
China reported a total of 1,552 new cases on Monday across the nation of 1.4 billion people, the National Health Commission reported.
Despite the relatively low number of infections, authorities have adhered to a “zero-COVID” policy requiring lockdowns, quarantines and the confining of people suspected of being in close contact with any confirmed case.
Sept. 10-12 is China’s mid-autumn festival, the country’s second-most important holiday after the Lunar New Year. The anti-virus measures have taken a major toll on the economy, travel and society in general, but China’s ruling Communist Party says they are necessary to prevent a wider spread of the virus, first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
The fear of being caught in a lockdown or sent to a quarantine facility for even being in proximity with a person who tested positive has severely constrained people’s work, socializing and travel habits.
In Chengdu, the start of the new school term has been delayed and most residents have been confined to their residential compounds. In all, 33 cities are restricting residents to their homes or compounds, according to state media reports.
Since the outbreak began, China has placed tens of millions of people under lockdowns that have been ruthlessly applied, sometimes preventing residents from obtaining food, health care and basic necessities.
A more-than five-week closure of Shanghai, China’s largest city and key financial hub, upended the local economy, prompted protests and led to an exodus of foreign residents.
Monthlong pandemic lockdown lifted on China’s Xi’an
January 24, 2022
China's Tianjin on partial lockdown after omicron found
January 10, 2022
Guangzhou closes to most arrivals as China’s outbreak grows
April 11, 2022
China reports major drop in virus cases in locked-down Xi’an
January 6, 2022
Xi calls situation grave as China scrambles to contain
January 26, 2020
U.S. orders consular to leave Shanghai amid COVID outbreak
April 12, 2022
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
