How Omicron variant spread has affected China's normal operations

Parents stand behind a tape line as they deliver bags to children at a school under lockdown, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China March 10, 2022. [Reuters]

Chinese officials in the Northeastern city of Changchun ordered the city of 9 million to be locked down on Friday.

The move they say was a result of a rise in Covid-19 cases that has also forced the financial hub Shanghai to close schools.

Mainland China reported over 1,000 new Covid-19 infections in dozens of cities, the highest daily count in about two years.

People in Changchun are required to stay at home with only one person per household being allowed to leave for food and other necessities every two days, Voice of America reports.

Moreover, the American-based news agency has also reported that all nonessential businesses, as well as schools and transportation modes, have been closed.
The residents are also required to submit to three rounds of mandatory testing.

On Friday, March 11, China reported the highest daily count of local cases, the highest since the initial nationwide outbreak in early 2020.

Although the number is much smaller than many others outside China, authorities say the growing number could complicate Beijing's "dynamic-clearance" ambition to suppress contagion as quickly as possible.

China detected 703 domestically transmitted asymptomatic infections for Thursday, according to data from the health authority.

This was up from 435 a day before.

Another 397 local symptomatic cases, which China classifies separately from symptomless infections, were reported for March. 10, the National Health Commission said.

Several cities with infections have taken measures such as launching multiple rounds of mass testing, limiting vehicular access to highways, cutting face-to-face classes in school and suspending indoor entertainment venues.

"We will make Covid-19 prevention and control more science-based and targeted according to changes in the epidemic situation and characteristics of the virus," Premier Li Keqiang told a press conference after the close of the annual parliamentary session in Beijing.

"Since the epidemic started, the service sector has been hit the most, especially those involving in-person contact, of which medium and small-firms account for the majority."

Major Chinese delivery and logistics firm S.F. Express said on Friday it had suspended deliveries of parcels and mail to the mainland from Hong Kong and Macau, citing the mainland's virus control requirements, without giving details.

Shanghai, fighting its biggest outbreak in around two years, said it would from Saturday shift classes for all primary, middle and high schools online and suspend kindergartens and preschools.

FRUSTRATION OVER CURBS

Some of the restrictions have started to bite.

Targeted lockdowns of buildings have caused anxiety among residents in Shanghai, while complaints that some university students in Jilin were not promptly moved to designated quarantine sites or had not received certain daily necessities triggered social media anger.

Mainland China's daily number of local asymptomatic infections hovered above 300 last weeks, a sharp increase from a daily average of about 10 such cases in the first two months this year, Reuters calculations showed.

"Infections in vaccinated individuals are more likely to be asymptomatic than infections in unvaccinated individuals, and vaccine coverage is now very high in China," said Ben Cowling, an epidemiology professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Around 87% of China's 1.4 billion population had received complete doses for primary vaccination as of late February, and around 40 per cent of the population had received a booster shot.

There have been no new deaths from Covid-19 reported in more than a year. Mainland China's registered death toll has been static at 4,636 since January 2021.