Ahead Of The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Several Cities In China Implement Restrictions Due To COVID-19 Cases

JAKARTA - Several Chinese cities are imposing varying degrees of travel restrictions following sporadic COVID-19 cases, in line with a national strategy that is increasingly pressing ahead of next month's Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Chinese New Year.

Yuzhou City in Henan Province has ordered its 1.1 million residents not to leave the city since Jan. 2, although the caseload for the city and the entire province remains small. Henan reported four domestically transmitted cases and 18 local asymptomatic infections on Tuesday.

Households in Yuzhou can only send one person to shop for daily necessities at a designated place every two days. Meanwhile in high-risk areas people were asked to stay at home and rely on deliveries, according to a government statement published late Tuesday.

China's strategy demands that officials act to contain clusters of infections as quickly as possible.

Strict restrictions appear to be paying off in Xian, the northwestern city of 13 million that has been in lockdown for two weeks, as new cases there show a significant decline.

In the city, authorities reported 35 cases of localized symptoms for Tuesday, a significant decrease from 95 the day before and 150 or more per day over the December 25-31 period.

Local authorities warn that the COVID-19 situation for Yuzhou is severe, with the source of the virus still unknown, demanding officials to treat virus control as a 'priority political task'

It is understood the city will have 5,000 rooms for quarantine ready by Wednesday afternoon, a local government official said Tuesday.

In Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, people in at-risk areas were told they cannot leave the city without approval from the COVID-19 control authorities, state television reported late Tuesday. Meanwhile, residents in other parts of the city are advised not to travel out of Zhengzhou unless absolutely necessary.

The overall virus situation in Zhengzhou, which carries out city-wide tests on its 12.6 million inhabitants, is under control, a government statement said.

In addition, the two counties in Henan, under the jurisdiction of Luoyang City and Zhoukou City, also sealed off several areas. The eastern province of Zhejiang also reported two locally symptomatic infections for Tuesday, and the city of Shanghai reported four local asymptomatic cases.

To note, Mainland China had 102,932 confirmed symptomatic cases as of the end of January 4, including local and imported ones. There were no new deaths for Tuesday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.