প্রকাশ: 14/03/2022
All 17 million
people in the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen began their first full day under
lockdown Monday, as restrictions spread across Shanghai and other major cities
to combat an outbreak challenging the nation's zero-tolerance Covid strategy.
The southern city of Shenzhen imposed the measure on Sunday
to counter an Omicron flare-up in factories and neighbourhoods linked to nearby
Hong Kong, which is recording scores of daily deaths as the virus runs rampant.
Major Apple supplier Foxconn suspended its operations in
Shenzhen, the company said Monday, as the lockdown bit hard into economic
activity across the factory hub.
Shenzhen is one of ten cities nationwide to have locked down
all residents, though the measure was taken Monday in some parts of other major
hubs including Dalian, Nanjing and Tianjin, which neighbours the capital.
Health officials have warned tighter restrictions could be
on their way, as concerns mount over the resilience of China's
"zero-Covid" approach in the face of the highly-transmissible Omicron
variant.
Authorities reported 2,300 new virus cases nationwide on
Monday and almost 3,400 a day earlier, the highest daily figure in two years.
"There have been many small-scale clusters in urban
villages and factories," Shenzhen city official Huang Qiang said at a
Monday briefing.
"This suggests a high risk of community spread, and
further precautions are still needed."
Photos shared with AFP by a Shenzhen resident showed housing
compound entrances blocked by large plastic barriers, as residents swapped
jokes on social media about their rush to grab laptops from offices before the
lockdown.
Tech stocks plummeted on the Hong Kong exchange on Monday,
as concerns over the impact of the virus spread in Shenzhen -- home to hubs for
Foxconn, as well as Huawei and Tencent -- spooked investors.
- Toughing it out -
In Shanghai, China's most populous city, residential areas
and offices in some neighbourhoods remained sealed Monday as city authorities
try to avoid a full lockdown.
The metropolis reported around 170 new virus cases on
Monday, enough to seed anxiety among businesses over the economic pain ahead.
A restauranteur with four outlets in different parts of
Shanghai said he has to wade through a morass of hyper-local restrictions,
giving an indication of how ordinary life in China is still spun on its head by
a pandemic that the rest of the world has learned to cope with.
"Different districts adopt different policies," he
told AFP, requesting anonymity.
"I want to close one and keep the rest open, and see
how it goes later. What else can I do except tough it out?"
Other outbreak epicenters have been less lucky.
Jilin province in the country's northeast recorded over
1,000 new cases for the second day in a row, and authorities tightened restrictions
Monday to ban residents leaving their cities without police permission.
At least five cities in the province have been locked down
since the beginning of March, including the major industrial base of Changchun,
whose nine million residents were confined at home Friday.
While the caseload is low in global terms, it is deeply
alarming in China where authorities have been unrelenting in squashing clusters
since early 2020.
In recent days, at least 26 officials in three provinces
have been dismissed due to their handling of local outbreaks, state media
reported.
China has so far managed to control sporadic domestic
outbreaks through a combination of snap lockdowns, mass testing and travel
restrictions, but the latest outbreak is testing the limits of its playbook.
Top medical expert Zhang Wenhong said Monday that China
cannot relax its zero-Covid policy just yet despite the low fatality rate of
Omicron.
"It is very important for China to continue to adopt
the strategy of community Covid-zero in the near future," Zhang wrote on
social media.
"But this does not mean that we will permanently adopt
the strategy of lockdown and full testing."
প্রধান সম্পাদকঃ সৈয়দ বোরহান কবীর
ক্রিয়েটিভ মিডিয়া লিমিটেডের অঙ্গ প্রতিষ্ঠান
বার্তা এবং বাণিজ্যিক কার্যালয়ঃ ২/৩ , ব্লক - ডি , লালমাটিয়া , ঢাকা -১২০৭
নিবন্ধিত ঠিকানাঃ বাড়ি# ৪৩ (লেভেল-৫) , রোড#১৬ নতুন (পুরাতন ২৭) , ধানমন্ডি , ঢাকা- ১২০৯
ফোনঃ +৮৮-০২৯১২৩৬৭৭