The city of Anyang, which has a population of 5 million and is located in central China, was also quarantined after the outbreak of the new coronavirus, mainly of the Omicron strain.
Residents in the city of Henan Province are the third country in the country to have to stay at home after a similar measure was taken last month in the capital of Shanxi Province, Xi'an, which has a population of 13 million and is located in the northwest. China, while the same is true in the smaller city of Yutsu, which is also located in Henan and has a population of one million.
China, which has largely stopped the new coronavirus outbreak since early 2020 following the outbreak in the central part of the country, is pursuing a zero-tolerance policy in COVID-19, which is based on taking radical measures already after the diagnosis of some cases.
This strategy is threatened by the outbreak of the virus in Xi'an, the most serious number of cases since the spring of 2020, and the appearance of the variant strain Omicron, which is highly contagious.
Authorities are on high alert as the date for the Beijing Winter Olympics approaches (February 4-20).
In this context, the authorities of Anyang city yesterday, Monday night, ordered its residents to stay in their homes and banned the movement of private vehicles, the New China news agency reported.
Stores with unnecessary items were closed and a general diagnostic campaign was launched to "prevent the spread of the Omicron strain," according to the official Chinese news agency.
The city has recorded 84 cases since Saturday, including at least two cases of the new Omicron variant, which are linked to infections in the port city of Tianjin.
This city, which borders Beijing, banned its 14 million inhabitants from leaving the city limits on Sunday.
Several cities in the country face similar measures, but apart from Anyang and Xi'an, only one other city in Henan, Yutsu, which has a population of 1 million, residents have to stay at home.
China announced today that a total of 157 new cases were registered in the country in the past 24 hours, of which 60 are classified as imported. The official death toll in China is barely more than 100.000 since the pandemic broke out, and the death toll from COVID-19 amounts to 4.636.
China does not count asymptomatic cases.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ-AFP