Cities in Eastern China tighten Covid curbs as new clusters erupt
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Supermarkets, shops, and dine-in services in restaurants suspend operations, traffic is suspended and flights are canceled in several cities in China as Covid-19 cases appear to be on the rise again.
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A woman shows a security guard her health status on her phone, at an entrance of a shopping mall in Beijing, China August 23, 2021 (Photo credit: Reuters, Tingshu Wang)
Covid-19 curbs were tightened on Sunday in cities in eastern China after coronavirus clusters emerged and started to pose a threat again to China's economic recovery.
With China's government applying a strict zero-Covid policy, a manufacturing hub in the Yangtze Delta on the central coast, Wuxi, suspended its operations at many public underground venues, including supermarkets and shops.
Not only operations were suspended, but also dine-in services in restaurants, with the government advising people to work from home.
After 42 new asymptomatic cases were reported on Saturday, city authorities called on residents not to leave Wuxi unless necessary.
China keeps trying to stamp out new infections under the strict measure taken in the country, but the world's second-biggest economy was not saved from effects of the lockdowns and other measures.
Traffic suspended, flights canceled
While 288 cases were reported in Si county in Anhui province on Saturday, the 760,000 residents were placed in lockdown and public traffic was suspended. Most of China's new infections were detected in Anhui which reported 61 symptomatic and 231 asymptomatic cases on Saturday.
As for Mainland China, it recorded 473 new cases, 104 of which were symptomatic and 369 were asymptomatic, according to the National Health Commission on Sunday. A day earlier, 268 new cases - of which 72 were symptomatic and 196 were asymptomatic - were detected, which China counts separately.
China's export capital for small commodities, Yiwu, canceled flights to Beijing, for an unspecified period, according to state TV, citing Covid prevention measures. In the past week, Yiwu reported three Covid cases.
Officials told a news press conference that one positive case outside of quarantine areas in the city was reported on Sunday in Shanghai, China's most populous city and financial hub.
The city lifted on Friday a lockdown after a 2-month shutdown that hit output and consumer spending. Industrial production in China fell 2.9% in April from a year earlier.
No new deaths were reported, which kept the nation's death toll to 5,226. Mainland China had confirmed 225,851 cases with symptoms as of Saturday.
No new local cases were reported in Beijing, and two local symptomatic cases were reported in Shanghai, according to local government data.
