Nearly 34mn locked down in China as Omicron fear spreads

Nearly 34 million people in China are now fully or partially locked down with authorities scrambling to contain a spreading Covid-19 outbreak with cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant reported among the infected.

The number of people ordered to stay home rose to 33.6 million after a third Chinese city, Anyang, in the central Chinese province of Henan was locked down on Monday. New cases prompted the lockdown of 5.5 million residents in the city of Anyang on Monday evening.

The city recorded 58 of the 87 of the cases in Henan province.

At least two Omicron cases have been confirmed in the city in recent days, linked to an outbreak in the city of Tianjin in the neighbourhood of Beijing but about 500km away from Anyang.

The Anyang municipal government has banned vehicles from roads and required all residents to stay inside their homes while an epidemiological investigation is under way.

“The first cases in the city are believed to be linked to the same transmission chain as the existing local cases in north China’s Tianjin Municipality, which are confirmed to be caused by the Omicron variant”, according to the publicity department of the Anyang city government. “Currently, all supermarkets in the city have suspended business other than selling daily necessities. Shops have been closed and take-out services have also been suspended,” official media reported.

China’s national health commission reported 110 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases for Monday, including 87 in Henan province, 13 in Shaanxi, and 10 in Tianjin.

At least 13 million people have been under lockdown in the northwestern city of Xian, home to the famous Terracotta Warriors tourist site since December 23; another 1.1 million are locked down in Yuzhou in Henan.

Residents of Tianjin, a city of nearly 14 million people near Beijing, continued to be mostly home on Tuesday with the local government restricting movement.

Several residential communities continued to be under closed-loop management following the discovery of Covid-19 cases in the premises.

Flights from the US cancelled

Meanwhile, China’s aviation regulator has ordered the cancellation of more than 60 scheduled flights from the US in recent weeks after numerous passengers tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in China.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has mandated the cancellations of 22 total scheduled US passenger airline flights for Shanghai under its Covid-19 pandemic rules: Ten by Delta Air Lines, six from United Airlines and six American Airlines flights.

The US, agency reports said, is facing a surge in infections caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant and on Monday had 132,646 people hospitalised with Covid-19, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January 2021.

Olympic organisers back controls

Despite Omicron concerns, Beijing will not adjust its Covid-19 prevention measures for the two-week Winter Olympics, beginning February 4, unless there are many cases inside the “closed-loop”, Huang Chun, an official with the Beijing Games organising committee, said on Tuesday, according to Reuters

The “closed-loop” bubble, in which participants can only leave if they are exiting the country or undergo quarantine, was activated earlier in January with a month to go for the Games.

Restrictions at Games venues in Beijing and Zhangjiakou in neighbouring Hebei province will be much tighter than those during last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

“But organisers have room to make adjustments to Covid-19 control measures if necessary,” Huang said.