Hundreds rally in Chinese city over Covid curbs
Protesters in southern China clashed with police in a rare display of public opposition to anti-Covid measures, videos posted online showed, after lockdowns in the area were extended over a surge in infections.
Videos circulating on social media since Monday night and verified by AFP showed hundreds taking to the street in the industrial metropolis of Guangzhou, some tearing down cordons intended to keep lockeddown residents from leaving their homes. A few scuffled with officials in hazmat suits.
“No more testing,” protesters chanted, with some throwing debris at police. Another video shows a man trying to swim across a waterway that separates the affected district of Haizhu from the neighbouring area, with passers-by suggesting the man was trying to escape the lockdown.The district of more than 1.8 million residents has been the source of the bulk of Guangzhou’s Covid-19 cases.
Officials announced the first snap lockdown there in late October, targeting dozens of residential neighbourhoods.
And on Monday, a lockdown order covering nearly two-thirds of the district was extended until Wednesday night.
City officials launched mandatory mass testing in nine districts last week, as daily case numbers rose above 1,000.
The megacity of more than 18 million people reported nearly 2,300 cases on Tuesday, most of them asymptomatic.
Pak, Cambodian prime ministers test Covid +ve
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has tested positive for Covid-19, information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Sharif had returned recently from London where he was visiting his brother and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Also, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday he has Covid and is leaving the G20 meetings in Bali, just days after hosting world leaders for a summit in his country’s capital.
The the Cambodian leader said he tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday night.