China has Quarantined a City of 9 Million People

China has imposed a full lockdown on the nine-million-strong city of Shenyang over 47 new cases of coronavirus. Residential complexes have been placed under “closed management”, a ban on leaving the city has been imposed, BGNES reported.

Shenyang is an industrial base located in Liaoning Province. It houses factories, including the carmaker BMW.

Authorities in China announced 4,770 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, after the country's strategy for “zero COVID” through lockdowns is in question due to the new wave of Omicron. The most infected is the northeastern province of Jilin.

In recent months, China has continued its policy of imposing restrictions on the availability of clusters of infected people, mass testing and quarantine in entire cities. Two deaths were reported on Saturday, the first in more than a year.

One week ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the need to “minimize the impact” of the pandemic on the Chinese economy but called on officials to “stick” to the “zero COVID” strategy.

Continued restrictions after two years in a pandemic are causing public discontent, although authorities are trying to impose an information blackout, Reuters reports.

The latest protest against the “zero COVID” strategy has led to clashes in the clothing market in Shenyang, the city that has been locked down once again. The footage spread on social media was blocked by the authorities with a call not to “spread rumors about the incident”, however, the comments that “many people woke up to the truth” do not stop.

“Three years have passed since the epidemic, and the government is still ineffective in dealing with it - this is an incompetent government that shows complete disregard for the lives and deaths of people,” said a comment on China's Twitter platform Weibo.

Economic difficulties are also growing. A courier from the severely affected city of Changchun in the northeastern province of Jilin told Reuters that 90% of the neighborhoods are closed and he can not make a living. “I have no choice, I can only wait for the quarantine to be lifted over the city - it is hopeless,” the man said.

Chinese people also complain about the arbitrary nature of the restrictions imposed and the abuse of power by local housing committees.

A Beijing family says their housing committee is on the verge of requiring them to install a surveillance device on the door of their apartment to ensure they comply with the order to stay home for two weeks.

The agency also cites a case of a patient undergoing chemotherapy at a cancer hospital in Shanghai who died while being locked up in his apartment next to the hospital due to quarantine.

/OFFNews

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