Understanding the key numbers behind China’s latest Covid-19 surge

Over the past week, the Covid-19 outbreak in China has dominated headlines.

Following a record surge in cases, all major cities, including Beijing and the financial hub of Shanghai, have been put under some form of lockdown, forcing people to hit the streets in a rare outburst of public anger against the government.

Covid cases in the country are the highest ever on record, yet deaths are not – a trend that should not be surprising, as many countries have experienced this during Omicron waves this year.

This begs the question: Why does Beijing prefer hard lockdowns when experience across the world has shown that vaccines have made these irrelevant? Here are some charts that explain the latest Chinese Covid-19 outbreak.