Millions of people in the areas around the Capital City are ordered to be locked Tuesday, with the authorities duplicating efforts to hold the Covid-19 ahead of the meeting of the ruling communist party this year.
Nearly four million people in Hebei Province, who surrounded Beijing, were ordered to stay at home until the weekend when officials rushed to curb a small virus that was burning.
And more than 13 million in the port city of Tianjin’s neighbor had to undergo mass testing starting at 6 am (2200 GMT), after 51 cases were mostly reported.
China is the only main global economy attached to zero-covid policies, and locking, travel restrictions and mass testing have disrupted the business and cooled growth.
Beijing has doubled the policy ahead of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party, it is expected to take place in the next three months.
Handling of Pandemia is widely seen as the center of President Xi Jinping’s political heritage, which will be anointed for the third term that has never happened before at the meeting.
But “the real Covid situation in China might get worse, because Omicron once again spread to big cities”, Nomura Ting Lu analyst warned in the research record.
Chengdu, the largest city in West China, has also seen strict travel restrictions.
And at the southern technology center of Shenzhen, two districts are under partial locking, while the largest electronic market in the world in Huaqiangbei has been closed – although only 35 daily cases reported in cities more than 18 million.
“The notification to close suddenly comes, we only have a few hours to put our stock into the warehouse and lock,” a trader at the Huaqiangbei technology market, who only offered his last name Chen, told AFP.
In Futian, where the city government is located, theaters, karaoke bars and parks are closed until Friday and large public events have been canceled.
Officials also seal the Wanxia environment in the suburbs, which offer affordable housing for drivers and migrant workers, although there are no cases reported there.