Some 20 million folks are actually dwelling underneath the strictest of COVID-19 measures in China as well being officers moved to place up a security ring round Beijing forward of the Winter Olympics in three weeks.

The Nationwide Well being Fee (NHC), China's central well being authority, is monitoring 4 main outbreaks throughout the nation. These embody Delta clusters in Xi'an and Yuzhou, within the provinces of Shaanxi and Henan, the place greater than 14 million residents stay underneath an indefinite lockdown.

On Monday, the port metropolis of Tianjin, 80 miles southeast of the Chinese language capital, was put underneath partial lockdown over the unfold of Omicron, which is considered many instances extra transmissible. On the identical day, the federal government of Anyang, additionally in Henan in central China, introduced a full lockdown following the invention of the identical coronavirus variant.

China is without doubt one of the few remaining nations on the planet nonetheless pursuing a zero-COVID coverage, regardless of having absolutely vaccinated round 85 p.c of its inhabitants. The Omicron clusters, whose origins stay unclear, pose the most important checks for Beijing's no-tolerance strategy to the virus, a method it has defended within the face of inside criticism and exterior skepticism.

To beat this winter's COVID surge earlier than the beginning of the Lunar New 12 months break on January 31 and the Winter Video games on February 4, China is expending extraordinary quantities of monetary and human sources and repurposing a number of the strictest public well being measures from the early days of the pandemic.

Districts in Tianjin, which has a inhabitants of 14 million, have been positioned into three public well being classes: lockdown, management and prevention. Within the first, residents aren't allowed to go away their houses; within the second, every family is permitted to ship one member of the family to buy provides each two days; and within the third, actions are restricted to the fast neighborhood.

Municipal officers have known as for a "moat" to be constructed across the metropolis in an effort to safeguard Beijing. Public transport has been suspended and colleges and universities shut as citywide testing begins this week. Extra exit controls are additionally in place, with residents required to provide detrimental PRC checks in addition to approval from companies and neighborhood authorities in an effort to depart town limits.

Round 300 miles away, Anyang's 5.5 million residents reside underneath harsher situations. After one in every of its Omicron circumstances was traced to a school pupil who had returned from Tianjin earlier than the New 12 months, all transport was suspended and direct bus and prepare hyperlinks to Beijing had been halted. A report by China's state broadcaster CCTV mentioned the case signifies the Omicron variant has been lively within the metropolis for at the least two weeks.

China Faces Omicron COVID Test Before Olympics
A well being employee swabs a resident to check for COVID-19 in Tianjin, China, on January 9, 2022. Well being authorities within the northeastern port metropolis imposed a partial lockdown of its 14 million residents over an Omicron outbreak a day later.STRINGER/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

On Tuesday, the NHC mentioned 110 domestically transmitted symptomatic COVID-19 circumstances had been reported throughout China on January 10. The determine did not embody 50 people who examined constructive however exhibited no signs—a separate reporting class maintained by Chinese language well being authorities because the begin of the pandemic.

The nation's whole circumstances reached 103,968, whereas its COVID-related deaths remained unchanged at 4,636.

China's zero-COVID coverage holds political significance for the Chinese language management and particularly President Xi Jinping. Its profitable containment of the virus has been one in every of its proudest achievements, and can proceed to lend the Chinese language Communist Get together legitimacy as Xi seeks an unprecedented third time period on the social gathering's twice-a-decade Nationwide Congress this autumn. Tight COVID controls are anticipated to final till after the occasion.

Earlier than that, Xi's suitability as chief will probably be strengthened by the profitable internet hosting of not solely Beijing 2022, but in addition the postponed 2021 Summer season World College Video games in Chengdu, Sichuan, in June, and the 2022 Asian Video games in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in September.