Nearly 30 million people were under lockdown across China on Tuesday, as surging virus cases returned mass tests and hazmat suited health officials to city streets on a scale not seen since the start of the pandemic.
China reported 5 280 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, more than double the previous day's tally as the highly-transmissible Omicron variant spreads across a country that has tethered tightly to a 'zero-Covid' strategy.
Residents of several cities there including the provincial capital of Changchun - home to nine million people - are under stay-at-home orders. Tuesday was the sixth day in a row that more than 1 000 new cases were recorded in the world's second-biggest economy, with experts forecasting a dent in growth as the virus billows out.The recent Covid outbreak and renewed restrictions, notably the lockdown in Shenzhen, will weigh on consumption and cause supply disruptions in the near term.
Dozens of domestic flights at airports in Beijing and Shanghai were cancelled Tuesday morning, flight tracking data showed.