 "Chinese city Yiwu put under partial lockdown")
In view of the rising COVID-19 cases, officials in China's Central Zhejiang Province are imposing tighter COVID-19 curbs in Yiwu city, carrying out mass testings and are imposing movement restrictions, media reports said.
According to a Canada-based news portal Crisis 24, authorities advise residents not to leave Yiwu unless necessary and encourage individuals from other areas not to enter the city. People that need to leave Yiwu must present a green health code and a negative nucleic acid test result taken within 24 hours.
In addition to this, mass testing is underway. Bus services are suspended through at least August 8. Indoor entertainment and fitness venues are also instructed to remain closed.
Localized lockdown and stay-home measures are in place in at least 16 high-and medium-risk areas. Authorities will restrict travel to and from the affected communities and enforce checkpoints in these areas to ensure compliance with movement restrictions.
Officials typically extend measures until one week after the latest date of newly confirmed community cases. They will likely conduct several rounds of testing in these locations before easing restrictions.
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The provincial authorities could impose tighter restrictions if there are new COVID-19 cases. Strict controls, such as stay-at-home orders and closure of nonessential businesses, are possible. The government may impose gathering, business, and travel restrictions in Yiwu as a precaution if new cases emerge.
Yiwu is approximately 95 km (59 miles) south of Hangzhou.
Meanwhile, owing to strict measures of Zero Covid Policy, the original epicentre of the Covid-19 virus, Wuhan has shut down again as four new asymptomatic cases were reported recently.
The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, George Gaos, stepped down after five years in the post, after overseeing the preliminary probe into the world's first outbreak of coronavirus.
Nobody is willing to say if the current strain of the Covid virus attacking the people is highly infectious like Delta or is a mild one and not lethal at all as the latest lockdown has sent shock waves across the country to Chinese citizens, only now recovering from the trauma of a lockdown that lasted months. The communist nation still refuses to give up its zero Covid policy.
The Jiangxia district of Wuhan was shut down initially for three days with a looming threat of extension if fresh cases continued to be reported. Nearly a million people were confined to their homes as everything was closed down.
Offices, entertainment venues, clinics, agricultural produce markets, restaurants, and downed shutters. All places of worship have locked their doors and the movement of tourists is halted.
All public transport, from buses to subway services, was suspended, and residents were urged not to leave the district unless absolutely necessary. Four more neighbourhoods were "designated as medium-risk, meaning residents cannot leave their compounds".
Meanwhile, George Gao's departure from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to leave a large gap in the efforts to not only contain the current strains of the virus but also plan ahead to handle future viral attacks.
The Centre has been also brought under the direct control of the "monolithic centrally controlled" National Health Commission and placed within a "new nominally streamlined bureau", borne of pandemic-era calls for reform.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
