Beijing cancels all flights, 6 million under lockdown

As China is seeing a rapid spike in COVID-19 cases, officials have requested residents to postpone weddings and keep funeral ceremonies short. Earlier, the country had managed to contain the virus ahead of the Winter Olympics but many regions are seeing a rise in cases. 

Even though China is recording fewer cases as compared to other countries, around 377 new cases have been reported between October 17-29 by the National Health Commission (NHC). On Friday, 48 new domestic cases were recorded making it a total of 250 cases in the last week.

In the last 14 days, 14 provincial areas have reported locally transmitted cases as per the NHC spokesperson, Mi Feng.

Another NHC official, Wu Liangyou said, “The outbreak is still developing rapidly, and the virus control situation is severe and complicated. The outbreak has exposed the laxity of mind among some local authorities.” 

Wu Liangyou has said that all ports of entry need screening of people of high infection risk and improve monitoring since the virus is still spreading in countries adjacent to China. A small city, Heihe with a population of 1.3 million people that lies on the border with Russia has reported 26 local cases on October 29 that was more than cases recorded on October 27 & 28.

On the other hand, in order to host the Winter Olympics Games in February 2022, Chinese athletes and staff supporting have to get the booster shot or COVID-19, while this is not compulsory for foreign athletes.