With no end in sight, Chengdu, a major city in China, has prolonged its Covid lockdown for a second time as authorities work to put an end to an outbreak that has disrupted daily life and business. Unfortunately, the outbreak has persisted despite the city’s rigorous restrictions.
The greatest Chinese city to come to a standstill since Shanghai’s agonizing two-month lockdown in the spring was Chengdu, which is home to 21 million people and the capital of the southwest Sichuan province. On September 1, Chengdu was placed under lockdown. A significant production center for Apple is located in the city.
When the city’s mandatory testing was scheduled to end on Sunday, Chengdu decided to keep the majority of the city under lockdown and schedule additional testing rounds until Wednesday.
The majority of the districts, including 16 million people, would again be placed under lockdown, according to a late Wednesday night announcement from the authorities. The city plans to end community infections in a week and will keep conducting daily mass testing.
The end of the lockdown was not specified by the authorities, who merely said that the limitations would be dynamically altered in response to the spread of the pandemic and the necessity for (Covid) prevention and control.
According to China’s zero-Covid goal, Chengdu recorded 116 illnesses on Wednesday, bringing its monthly total of cases to close to 1,800. This is a sizable outbreak.
In some areas, ordering tea, coffee, hot pot, and barbecues online is illegal since they are considered “non-daily requirements.” Government notices also stated that restaurants, bakeries, and BBQ stands were to close.
Several months of lockdown around Chengdu
The closing countdown to the Communist Party gathering in October, when leader Xi Jinping is anticipated to achieve a record-breaking third term in power, has put tremendous pressure on local authorities across China to eradicate illnesses at all costs.
According to a CNN count, more than 300 million individuals have been affected by complete or partial Covid lockdowns that have been imposed on more than 70 cities since late August.
China’s National Health Commission reports that there are 309 low-risk locations, 1,604 medium-risk areas, and 1,730 high-risk zones as of Wednesday. An area at risk could be as small as a single store or as large as an entire residential complex. People who live in high-risk zones are absolutely prohibited from leaving their homes, while those who reside in medium-risk areas are restricted to their compounds.
There are serious food shortages in several cities as a result of the government’s apparent lack of preparation for the lockdown.
A four-day lockdown was imposed on the city’s major areas on Monday after 132 cases were reported in Guiyang, the capital of the southwest Guizhou province. However, by Wednesday, a significant portion of Guiyang’s populace had taken to social media to request assistance with their food shortages.
According to official media, the situation seemed especially bad in Huaguoyuan, a massive residential complex with some 400,000 occupants. Social media posts with screenshots of locals screaming for food are circulating. Some of the inhabitants claim they have been without food for three days.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the local government acknowledged the problem and offered its regrets for the shortage of supplies.
Following the discovery by authorities that a previous hotel visitor had been in close touch with a Covid sufferer, the Disney hotel in Shanghai placed its guests under a two-day lockdown on Wednesday.
The pandemic, which is concentrating on university campuses, is also being fought off by Beijing’s authorities. Both Tuesday and Wednesday saw 10 and 14 local illnesses, respectively, in the city.
According to the National Health Commission, China reported 1,439 new illnesses nationwide on Wednesday.
