China blocks Shenyang city to prevent COVID-19 epidemic

According to the announcement, the authorities have conducted strict control of all residential areas, and banned people from leaving their homes without a negative test result within 48 hours. With a population of about 9 million, Shenyang is the industrial headquarters of many factories, including car maker BMW. On March 22, this city recorded 47 new cases of COVID-19.

Thanks to a combination of strict border control policies, long-term isolation and targeted blockade, China – the country that recorded the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection in the world – The disease has been relatively well controlled. However, the emergence of the rapidly spreading variant of Omicron is posing major challenges for the country. In the past two weeks, China has stepped up blockade measures and large-scale testing to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in many localities. On March 21, mainland China recorded 2,281 new infections in the community, most of which were in Jilin province in the northeast.

In an effort to respond to the largest COVID-19 outbreak in two years, on March 20, China asked millions of people in the city of Jilin not to leave their homes. It is the second largest city in the province of the same name. Jilin province officials on March 21 confirmed that the first 10,000 doses of the oral COVID-19 drug Paxlovid manufactured by Pfizer had arrived in this locality, marking the first time the drug was used in China.