Fearing another Covid wave China locks down thousands

Fearing another Covid wave, China has imposed lockdown-like restrictions in its Ejin county as the region has witnessed an increased number of COVID-19 cases.

The lockdown was imposed by Chinese authorities in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to curb the latest outbreak of novel coronavirus infections in the country.

The area lies in the Mongolia region where the administration has asked the citizens to stay home and warned for civil and criminal action against those not following protocols.

Home to a population of 1.8 lakh, Alxa Left Banner borders Mongolia.

On Sunday October 24th, China's National Health Commission (NHC) had warned that the current outbreak of novel coronavirus infections has spread to 11 provinces over a period of seven days.

Meanwhile, travel restrictions have been imposed in parts of China, including Beijing, Gansu, Ningxia, and Guizhou, in a bid to contain the outbreak. All train services and tours have also been temporarily suspended in select provinces.

Travel in or out of the city is banned, except for essential with official clearance. Yinchuan has advised residents not to leave town for unnecessory trips, and closed public venues such as bars and cinemas in two districts with higher virus risk.

NHC official Wu Liangyou, in a briefing in Beijing, stated that the current outbreak is due to the highly transmissible delta variant.

This is the third outbreak of Covid-19 infections in China since the beginning of this year.

Authorities in China have now ramped up contact tracing to curb the spread of local transmission. In August, this year, the Chinese government had claimed to have administered 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines.