The Chinese city of Chengdu, with about 20 million inhabitants and located in the southwest of the country, will be under confinement from this Thursday with the aim of curbing a new outbreak of Covid-19, official sources said.
Chengdu authorities released an official document in which they urge residents to “stay at home” starting at 18 this Thursday to fight against a new wave of infections.
Each household will be able to send one person a day to buy food and essential goods, but they must have tested negative in the last 24 hours, according to the document.
Between Thursday and Sunday, all residents will be tested and the authorities have asked that they not leave the city. unless it was “absolutely necessary”, the AFP and Sputnik news agencies reported.
“The current state of epidemic control is abnormal, complex and grim,” the document states. The measures, according to the letter, aim to “decisively stop the spread of the outbreak and guarantee the health of all citizens.”
Chengdu registered 157 new local infections on Thursday, of which 51 had no symptoms, the city government said in a separate statement.
Elsewhere in China, children in at least 10 cities and provinces are facing disruption to the new school year as pandemic controls force schools to adopt measures such as online learning, according to a report published on Monday. Thursday by a media outlet affiliated with the state-owned Diario del Pueblo.
China is the last major economy in the world that continues to apply the so-called “zero Covid” strategy to eradicate the virus based on restrictions on international travel, quarantines, massive tests and severe confinements.
