China’s Shenzhen to adopt tiered Covid measures

China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen said it will adopt tiered anti-virus restriction measures starting on Monday (Sep 5), while the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu announced an extension of lockdown curbs, as the country grapples with fresh outbreaks.

Shenzhen, which went into a weekend lockdown on Saturday, announced a new round of Covid-19 testing, and vowed to “marshal all available resources, mobilise all forces, and take all possible measures” to stamp out the pandemic.

Separately, Chengdu, which placed its 21 million people under lockdown on Thursday, said the city will keep curbs in place for most of the city, and will conduct more mass testing from Monday to Wednesday.

China is sticking to its stringent zero-Covid policy, even as most other countries have relaxed restrictions and chosen to live with virus. As a result, fresh outbreaks have become a major risk to the world’s second-biggest economy.

Currently, 33 cities are under partial or full lockdowns, affecting more than 65 million residents, according to an estimate by Chinese financial magazine Caixin.

In Shenzen, a city of 18 million people, an official said the risks were still considerable.

“Currently, the city’s Covid situation is severe and complex. The number of new infections remains relatively high and community transmission risk still exists,” Lin Hancheng, a Shenzhen public health official, told a news conference late on Sunday. Reuters