China locks down 3rd city, raising affected to 20 million | Associated Press - Ken Moritsugu:
January 11, 2022 - "A third Chinese city has locked down its residents because of a COVID-19 outbreak, raising the number confined to their homes in China to about 20 million people. The lockdown of Anyang, home to 5.5 million people, was announced late Monday after two cases of the omicron variant were reported. Residents are not allowed to go out and stores have been ordered shut except those selling necessities.
"Another 13 million people have been locked down in Xi’an for nearly three weeks, and 1.1 million more in Yuzhou for more than a week.... The lockdowns are the broadest since the shutting down of Wuhan and most of the rest of Hubei province in early 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Since then, China’s approach has evolved into one of targeting smaller areas hit by outbreaks for lockdowns. The approach of the Winter Olympics, which open Feb. 4 in Beijing, and the emergence of omicron have brought back citywide lockdowns in a bid to snuff out outbreaks and prevent them from spreading to other parts of China....
"In Hong Kong, city leader Carrie Lam announced the closure of kindergartens and primary schools after infections were reported in students. Schools are to close by Friday and remain shut until at least the Lunar New Year holiday in the first week of February. The semiautonomous Chinese city has tightened pandemic-related restrictions in recent days after discovering the omicron variant had spread beyond people arriving from overseas.
"The Anyang omicron cases are believed to be linked to two other cases found Saturday in Tianjin. It appears to be the first time omicron has spread in mainland China... Tianjin, a major port that is less than an hour from Beijing by high-speed rail, has locked down only affected areas as it carries out mass testing.... Xi’an and Yuzhou are both battling the delta variant and neither has reported any omicron cases."
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-china-64ca91f0f2315eabea84bb4a9d0801eb
Tianjin, China, Jan. 11, 2022. Photo: Sky News
China COVID-19 lockdowns hit factories, ports in latest knock to supply chains | Fox Business - Stella Yifan Xie , Yang Hie , Dan Strumpf, Wall Street Journal:
January 12, 2021 - "With COVID-19 flaring up across China, major manufacturers are shutting factories, ports are clogging up and workers are in short supply as officials impose city lockdowns and mass testing on a scale unseen in nearly two years. The prospect of continued disruptions in the world’s second-largest economy, which has a zero-tolerance strategy for combating the pandemic, is heightening fears that the disruptions will ripple through the global economy.
"Already, companies including memory-chip maker Samsung Electronics Co., German automaker Volkswagen AG and a textiles company that supplies Nike Inc. and Adidas AG are suffering production hitches.... The world’s third-busiest container port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, near Shanghai, risks worsening backlogs from restrictions on trucks and warehouse operations after more than two dozen Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the surrounding area.
"Chinese authorities are adhering to the same playbook that ... curtailed initial outbreaks of the pandemic and caused intermittent disruptions to production and supply chains. The potential consequences are more severe this time, economists warn, because of the highly contagious nature of Omicron, which has been detected in some areas of China. The variant is hitting the country as Beijing seeks to contain outbreaks ahead of the Winter Olympics, which are set to begin on Feb. 4.... Several economists said China may escalate its containment policy and some have touted the possibility of a nationwide lockdown."
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