China locks down city of 9mn to curb virus spread

BEIJING/CHISINAU: China locked down an industrial city of nine million people overnight and reported more than 4,000 virus cases on Tuesday, as the nation’s “zero-Covid” strategy is confronted by an Omicron wave.

Health authorities reported 4,770 new infections across the country, the bulk in the northeastern province of Jilin, as the city of Shenyang in neighbouring Liaoning province was ordered to lock down late Monday.

China has moved fast in recent weeks to snuff out virus clusters with a pick-and-mix of hyper-local lockdowns, mass testing and citywide closures. It reported two Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, the first in over a year.

Authorities have warned of the risk posed to growth by persistent lockdowns as the country strives to balance the health crisis with the needs of the world’s second biggest economy.

Shenyang, an industrial base home to factories, reported 47 new cases on Tuesday as authorities put all housing compounds under “closed management” and barred residents from leaving without a 48-hour negative test result.

‘Curbs lifted brutally in some European nations’ Several European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Britain, lifted their Covid curbs too “brutally” and are now seeing a rise in cases likely due to the more transmissible BA2 variant, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told a press conference in Moldova that he was “optimistic but vigilant” about the pandemic’s development in Europe.

Covid is on the rise in 18 out of 53 countries in the WHO European region, he said. “The countries where we see a particular increase are the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany”.

He said the main reason behind the increase was likely the BA2 variant, which is more transmissible, but not more dangerous than other variants.

There should not be an iota of relaxation. LIANG WANNIAN, China’s virus czar on the country’s strict Covid Zero strategy

‘Sinovac as effective as BioNTech after 3 doses’ Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine is as effective as the BioNTech SE vaccine in preventing severe infections or deaths after three doses, according to a study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong.

For those who have taken two doses, Sinovac is less effective in preventing serious illness or death for the elderly, the study showed.