China revives COVID-19 lockdowns in cities

The number of COVID-19 cases in parts of China is on the rise, partly due to the spread of the omicron variant. On Sunday, the government put 17.5 million residents on lockdown in the southern city of Shenzhen. In Changchun in the northeast, only one person from each home can go out every two days to buy food and other necessities. Chinese officials are urging the public not to leave Beijing and are closing Shanghai schools, while the leader of Hong Kong warned that its coronavirus outbreak has yet to reach its peak. 

How bad is the surge? The nationwide case count in the mainland topped 1,000 this week for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020. China continues to implement a zero-COVID policy, even as other countries start returning to normalcy. Authorities said they would lock down any community that reports one or more cases. Hong Kong had an average of about 24,000 new cases per day over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Dig deeper: Read a global report from WORLD’s international correspondents on how different countries have adapted to the pandemic.