Chinese residents are fearing a potential second major lockdown as a surge of a subvariant of the Omicron virus in the region is threatening to force officials into action.
The country's most populous city, Shanghai, confirmed over the weekend that the increasingly dominant subvariant of omicron had arrived only weeks after officials declared victory against COVID-19 following a citywide lockdown.
Omicron Subvariant Surge
While the total number of infections in China remains relatively low compared with many other countries, with the National Health Commission reporting on Monday that 352 locally transmitted infections were recorded in the region, Beijing has continued to be concerned that the highly transmissible subvariant's arrival will lead to a mass outbreak.
Shanghai authorities also quickly tried to ease worries of a potential return to April and May, when the city's disruptive coronavirus restrictions occurred. When asked about whether or not another large-scale lockdown was possible, the Chinese government said that the only plan they had was to conduct PCR tests for all residents in nine of the city's 16 districts, as per the Washington Post.
Only one street had been designated high risk but 37 others were deemed medium risk on Monday, which means that residents will not be allowed to leave their homes. On Weibo, a microblogging platform, many residents noted that Shanghai officials had made similar denials about a wider lockdown in March.
One comment on the platform that received more than 10,000 likes read, "Originally, I half-believed them. As soon as there was a denial, I rushed to stock up on goods." Furthermore, a growing concern among residents clashed with continued upbeat messaging from propagandists.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in the past seven days, more than 2,300 locally transmitted cases have been reported nationwide. The central province of Anhui, which is a producer of steel, autos, and computers, is the worst affected, peaking at 292 cases daily more than a week ago.
China's Lockdowns
Chinese President Xi Jinping had previously lauded the claimed effectiveness of the country's zero-COVID policies in containing outbreaks driven by the highly infectious omicron variant. However, given that only five of the 31 provincial-level regions have reported zero cases since Shanghai's lockdown officially ended on June 1, preventing another outbreak while avoiding severe damage to the economy would be a big challenge.
Shanghai authorities said on Sunday that the city found its first locally transmitted infection of the omicron subvariant BA.5 which was traced to an earlier imported case. The strain, which has now dominated the United States, is considered as the most infective version yet because of its ability to evade immunity built up by previous infections and vaccines.
In northwestern China, the city of Xi'an, which is home to roughly 13 million people, was partially shut down on Wednesday after reporting the country's first outbreak of the highly transmissible omicron subvariant.
The region recorded 18 COVID-19 infections from Saturday to Monday, all of which were found to be the omicron BA.5 subvariant. Xi'an officials on Tuesday announced sweeping restrictions that would shut down several parts of the city for seven days starting from Wednesday, CNN reported.
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