China reported a total of 3,393 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, including 1,807 of domestic transmission, 131 imported and 1,455 asymptomatic. This was announced by the National Health Commission, reporting the highest figure since February 2020, in the midst of the crisis in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei ended up in lockdown where the coronavirus was first detected on a global scale. This is an extraordinary wave of contagions nationwide despite “zero tolerance”, with over 40 outbreaks, due to the Omicron variant, which saw the authorities close schools in Shanghai and block several cities in the northeast.
Of the 1,807 domestic cases, four times the 476 detected on Friday, 1,412 were ascertained in the northeastern province of Jilin, 175 in Shandong and 62 in Guangdong. Jilin city has been partially blocked off, with hundreds of neighborhoods sealed off, local media reported. China has maintained its strict “zero Covid” policy, based on immediate blockades, travel restrictions and mass testing in the face of outbreaks, but the latest wave, led by the highly transmissible Omicron variant and a spike in asymptomatic cases, is challenging the approach. Jilin residents have completed six rounds of mass testing, according to local health officials, but the city has reported over 500 Omicron cases, while the nearby city of Changchun, an industrial base of nine million people, has been in lockdown since Friday. .
“The pandemic reflects the spread of the highly contagious, rapid and difficult to detect Omicron variant in the early stages,” Zhang Yan, a provincial health official, admitted during a news conference. The mayor of Jilin and the head of the Changchun health commission were removed from their posts on Saturday, state media reported. The smaller towns of Siping and Dunhua, both in Jilin province, were shut down on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The city of Hunchun, on the border with Russia and North Korea, was put in lockdown on March 1 and three hospitals were built urgently, becoming operational for the treatment of patients suffering from Covid-19, the agency said. Xinhua.