A large city in the southwest shut schools after another surge in Covid-19 cases was recorded, and everyone in a district of 1.8 million people in Guangzhou, a major city in southern China, was told to stay at home on Saturday to undergo viral testing.
The National Health Commission said that a total of 11,773 cases were discovered across the country in the previous 24 hours, including 10,351 in patients who had no symptoms. Although China's numbers remain small, the recent rise poses a threat to the "zero-COVID" policy, which aims to isolate every sick individual.
In Guangzhou, a 13 million-person metropolis, 3,775 Covid-19 infections were detected, including 2,996 in persons who had no symptoms. The number was higher than Friday's total of 3,030, which included 2,461 persons who had no symptoms.
The district authority of Haizhu in Guangzhou issued a directive ordering residents to stay inside on Saturday while testing was being done. Each family was given permission to send one person shopping for groceries.
Due to an increase in cases, Guangzhou has closed schools as well as most of the city's bus and metro operations.
There have been cancellations of flights from Guangzhou to Beijing, the capital of China, and other significant cities as well.
Despite efforts to ease damage to the world’s second-largest economy, forecasters say business and consumer activity is weakening after growth rebounded to 3.9 percent over a year earlier in the three months ending in September from the first half’s 2.2 percent.
Economists have cut their forecast of China’s annual economic growth to as low as 3 percent, which would be among the lowest in decades.
However, President Xi Jinping’s government has refused to import foreign vaccines and defied requests to release more information about the source of the virus, which was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.
The National Health Commission said that a total of 11,773 cases were discovered across the country in the previous 24 hours, including 10,351 in patients who had no symptoms. Although China's numbers remain small, the recent rise poses a threat to the "zero-COVID" policy, which aims to isolate every sick individual.
In Guangzhou, a 13 million-person metropolis, 3,775 Covid-19 infections were detected, including 2,996 in persons who had no symptoms. The number was higher than Friday's total of 3,030, which included 2,461 persons who had no symptoms.
The district authority of Haizhu in Guangzhou issued a directive ordering residents to stay inside on Saturday while testing was being done. Each family was given permission to send one person shopping for groceries.
Due to an increase in cases, Guangzhou has closed schools as well as most of the city's bus and metro operations.
There have been cancellations of flights from Guangzhou to Beijing, the capital of China, and other significant cities as well.
Despite efforts to ease damage to the world’s second-largest economy, forecasters say business and consumer activity is weakening after growth rebounded to 3.9 percent over a year earlier in the three months ending in September from the first half’s 2.2 percent.
Economists have cut their forecast of China’s annual economic growth to as low as 3 percent, which would be among the lowest in decades.
However, President Xi Jinping’s government has refused to import foreign vaccines and defied requests to release more information about the source of the virus, which was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.
