45 million under a lockdown, China Covid tally doubles: Report

A Shanghai pedestrian swarmed by hazmat-clad health officials, police tape wrapped around entire blocks, and panic buying at a Shenzhen shopping centre: China is returning to virus controls many hoped it had long left behind. The country is facing its worst Covid-19 outbreak since the first wave of the pandemic emerged in Wuhan in late 2019. 

While the daily caseload is comparatively small, around 5,300 were recorded on Tuesday, the Omicron variant is shaking Beijing’s “zero-Covid” strategy — and that means the return of mass testing and tough restrictions on movement. The government is looking to stem an outbreak that has seen symptomatic cases confirmed in 28 of the 31 mainland provinces.

The city of Langfang, located just 55 kilometers from Beijing, joined Shenzhen and Jilin province in imposing lockdowns as more than 45 million people are restricted from leaving their homes. International flights are being diverted from Shanghai to ease pressure on quarantine hotels and isolation facilities while trucking is being hit by delays as drivers undergo more stringent testing requirements.

Nearly half of Hong Kong’s population has already caught Covid, according to a study, while South Korea could relax social distancing rules for private gatherings and restaurants. Vietnam clarified the rules on Covid patients, telling them to stay at home. even as the number of container ships waiting off Qingdao, one of China’s biggest ports, is continuing to rise.

US data warns of new bump in cases after lull

A wastewater network that monitors for Covid-19 trends is warning that cases are once again rising in many parts of the US, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by Bloomberg. More than a third of the CDC’s wastewater sample sites across the US showed rising Covid-19 trends during early March, though reported cases have stayed near a recent low. The number of sites with rising signals of Covid-19 cases is nearly twice what it was during the February 1 to February 10 period, when the wave of Omicron-variant cases was fading rapidly.