China sets a new daily high record for Covid cases

China reported a third consecutive daily record for new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, amid numerous social media reports of citizen protests against restrictions, including a large scale demonstration in the northwestern city of Urumqi and sporadic ones in Beijing, indicating a seething resentment among people over lockdowns and unexplained curbs upturning lives and shrinking incomes.

While the rest of the world has mostly settled into an endemic existence with the virus, China has maintained its recently eased but stringently implemented “zero-Covid” policy of isolating every single infection through isolation, lockdowns, and mass tests.

Given the rapid spread and nationwide nature of the Omicron-driven outbreak, the worst since the pandemic began, the policy has disrupted normal life and slowed the economy.

The national health commission (NHC) reported 35,183 new Covid-19 infections in China on Saturday, including a handful of “imported” cases, in its daily bulletin, of which 3,474 were symptomatic and the remaining were asymptomatic.

Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Beijing all struggled to keep raging outbreaks under control, with the capital recording another single-day high of nearly 2,600 new infections.

Beijing, a city of nearly 22 million people, has literally ground to a halt in the last week, with Covid-19-related restrictions imposed in all of its 16 districts – despite the fact that a lockdown has not been formally declared.

The worst-affected and most populous district, Chaoyang, has been virtually shut down, with local authorities closing down offices, restaurants, malls, and most public spaces. Residents are being advised not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary.

Many apartment blocks in Beijing have been partially sealed due to a single incident in a neighbouring compound; in some cases, residents have not been informed as to why their apartment buildings have been placed under “static management” or lockdown.

Meanwhile, mass tests continued in the southwestern city of Chongqing, which has a population of over 30 million people.

“In southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, which has registered more than 60,000 infections since November 1, authorities organised retail companies to set up temporary stands outside the residential complexes that were under closed-off management,” the official news agency, Xinhua said in a report on Saturday.

The Commerce Ministry has stated that it will increase its efforts to ensure the supply of daily necessities, particularly for residents in areas hard hit by the Covid-19 resurgence.

Guangzhou, a southern Chinese city of nearly 19 million people, remains the current epicentre of China’s ongoing wave of Omicron-driven outbreaks.

According to official data compiled by news website Caixin, the city recorded more than 120,000 infections, the majority of which were asymptomatic, between October 22 and Friday.