Lagatar24 Desk
Beijing, Dec.14: China’s economically crucial Zhejiang province is battling a Covid outbreak that has quarantined half a million people and forced some districts to close their doors.
On Tuesday, Zhejiang, a key manufacturing and export hub on China’s east coast, reported 44 of the country’s 51 domestically transmitted coronavirus cases, increasing the total to nearly 200 since late last week.
Despite the fact that the number of cases in China is small in comparison to other big economies, officials in Zhejiang have used the country’s hallmark mass testing blitz and targeted lockdowns, with fears of new outbreaks growing as Beijing prepares to host the Winter Olympics in February.
According to officials, more than 540,000 people have been quarantined in Zhejiang.
The province’s troubles come as Chinese media announced on Monday that the country’s first case of the fast-spreading Omicron variety had been discovered in Tianjin, the country’s northern port city.
Districts in Ningbo, the province’s main port, and Shaoxing, a neighbouring city, claimed they were also stopping certain business operations in recent days.
All firms not related to virus control or deemed critical to the public in Ningbo’s Zhenhai district, a big petrochemical base, will be shut down, and petrochemical makers will have to limit output.
Last Thursday, a district in Shaoxing ordered a halt to activity.
Several publicly traded enterprises in Hangzhou, the province’s capital and largest city, have also issued statements indicating that production has been halted.
Hundreds of flights out of Hangzhou were cancelled on Tuesday, according to data from flight tracker VariFlight.
In terms of GDP and exports, Zhejiang is one of China’s most prosperous provinces.
Before stabilising the situation last month, the world’s second-largest economy endured weeks of massive power outages, which were blamed on tough emissions targets and high coal costs.
