Tens of millions of Chinese people are back in strict lockdown. Residents say they feel 'trapped.'
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images
- Tens of millions of people in China are back in strict lockdown.
- Surging numbers of coronavirus cases prompted the new measures.
- China describes its "zero-COVID" policy as "dynamic," seeking to quickly contain outbreaks.
As people in the US and other countries get rid of masks and plan summer vacations, tens of millions of people in China are back in strict lockdown, causing frustration among residents and hampering global supply chains.
Surging COVID-19 case numbers, driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant, have prompted the new measures, as Chinese health officials stand by what they call a "dynamic" "zero-COVID" policy. That means rapid lockdowns, mass testing, and travel restrictions when clusters emerge.
The weekly average number of daily cases recorded in China is more than 1,600 — the highest since February 2020, according to Oxford University's Our World in Data. The vast majority of cases are in Jilin, a northeastern Chinese province that borders North Korea and Russia.
Jin Dong-Yan, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, told Reuters that China's COVID-19 policy hadn't "completely broken down" but added that "daily increases of over 1,000 cases are a warning sign."
In Shenzhen, China's Silicon Valley, 17.5 million people are under stay-at-home orders for at least a week, with exceptions being permitted only for "essential reasons."
In Shanghai, China's commercial hub of 24 million people, schools and restaurants are closed. By stark contrast, on Friday the UK planned to remove all travel restrictions for international travelers for the first time in two years. The UK was one of the slowest to enact controls in the wake of the initial outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan and was later one of the earliest to dramatically ease restrictions.
The impact of China's latest restrictions have already been felt worldwide. Some companies have been forced to suspend their Chinese operations, piling fresh uncertainty on supply chains. Apple's top iPhone assembler stopped operations in Shenzhen on Monday.
China's zero-COVID-19 approach has suppressed case numbers throughout the pandemic, but the strategy makes returning to normal life a challenge.
About 85% of the population have had two doses of Chinese-made vaccines, according to Our World in Data, but it's not clear how effective they are against Omicron. Furthermore, because of the zero-COVID strategy, immunity levels in the population from past infection are low.
Mi Feng, a representative at the National Health Commission, said Tuesday that preventing and controlling epidemics had become "more difficult" but China's current strategy was still effective against Omicron, per Reuters.
Despite a rapid rise in cases for the country, it's still recording relatively low numbers compared with the US and the UK — as of Tuesday, the US recorded an average of 93 new daily cases per million people, the UK recorded more than 1,000, and China recorded 0.89, according to Our World in Data.
Chen Zhengming, a professor of epidemiology at Oxford University, told Reuters that, regardless of cost, China's approach had worked and cautioned that the public might misinterpret any changes as "giving up."
"The next two weeks are key to determining whether existing policies can really be effective in curbing infection growth or even reaching completely zero cases in one city as we saw last year," he said.
In the meantime, some are frustrated.
One Shenzhen resident told Reuters he believed there was "no way" to stop Omicron.
"The only way is to maintain normalcy and welcome the virus," he said. "Many people have recovered and traveled everywhere. Why are we trapped here?"
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