Shenzhen, Sept. 1 (BUS): One of China’s largest cities, Chengdu, has announced a lockdown of 21.2 million residents as it launched four days of citywide COVID-19 testing, as some of the country’s most populous and economically important urban centers struggle. .
The city government said in a statement that all residents in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, were largely ordered to stay at home starting at 6 p.m. Thursday, with families allowed to send one person a day to buy necessities.
Chengdu is the largest city to have been shut down since Shanghai was shut down for two months earlier this year. It remained unclear whether the lockdown would be lifted after the mass testing plan was implemented as of Sunday.
Other major cities, including Shenzhen in the south and Dalian in the northeast, also beefed up COVID restrictions this week, from requirements for working from home to shutting down entertainment businesses in some large areas.
These moves are limiting the activities of tens of millions of people, exacerbating the challenges for China to reduce the economic impact of the “zero dynamic” COVID policy that has kept China’s borders mostly closed to international visitors and made them as far away as other countries try to live with the coronavirus.
Most of the restrictions are set to last a few days for now, although two provincial cities in northern China have extended restrictions beyond initial promises.
Non-essential sector employees in Chengdu have been asked to work from home, and residents have been urged not to leave the city unless necessary. Residents who have to leave their apartment complex for hospital visits or other special needs must obtain approval from neighborhood staff.
Industrial firms engaged in critical manufacturing and able to operate on a closed college campus have been exempted from the requirement to work from home.
Flights to and from the city of Chengdu have been significantly reduced, according to Flight Master data. At 10 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) on Thursday, it showed that 398 flights were canceled at Chengdu’s Shuangliu Airport, with a cancellation rate of 62%. At Chengdu’s Tianfu Airport, 79%, or 725 flights, were canceled.
In Shenzhen, the bustling technology and transportation hub bordering Hong Kong, the city’s most populous Bao’an district, on Thursday suspended large events and indoor entertainment for three days and ordered stricter checks on people’s digital health credentials as they enter apartment complexes.
Including Bao’an, at least half of Shenzhen’s 10 districts, home to more than 13 million people, have ordered blanket closures of entertainment venues and halted or reduced dining in restaurants for a few days, with restrictions expected in two districts to be lifted by the end of Thursday. .
Data on Thursday showed that Chinese factory activity contracted for the first time in three months in August amid weak demand, while capacity shortages and the novel coronavirus outbreak disrupted production.
MI