Over 21mn under Covid lockdown in Chinese city

BEIJING: More than 21 million residents are subject to an Covid Lockdown in Chengdu following a new outbreak was discovered in the Chinese city, local media reported.

The following day, Chengdu which is the capital of the southern Sichuan province reported 157 new Covid-19 cases, with 51 of them asymptomatic cases, the BBC reported.

The Lockdown took effect on Thursday with the residents asked to stay inside while only one person in the household is permitted to go out to shop for essential items.

Authorities have also issued a ban on people who are leaving or entering the city since health officials have described the current situation “extremely complicated and serious” and blamed the outbreak on massive gatherings.

Mass testing is scheduled to begin in the next few days The mass testing will begin in the coming days, the BBC said , adding that it was not available information available about when the Lockdown will end.

This latest change is in accordance with China’s “zero Covid policy” require cities to impose strict lockdowns, even if only one or two of incidents are reported.

In the month of March, China imposed its largest Lockdown in Shanghai that lasted two months.It also led to numerous stories of the lack of food and living conditions in quarantine centers according to the BBC reported.

Wuhan the city in which the virus first appeared in the latter half of 2019, was put under Lockdown in July following the identification of four cases of positive.

Additional restrictions that are in force in place across other regions in China includes Shenzhen in the south as well as Dalian in the north-east.

While the Covid pandemic started in China but the country has reported an overall of 5,226 deaths, which is far lower than the countries with the worst health problems such as India, Brazil, US, Brazil and India.