Hong Kong CNN —
China’s southern metropolis of Guangzhou has locked down more than 5 million residents as authorities rush to stamp out a widening Covid outbreak and avoid triggering the kind of city-wide lockdown that ravaged Shanghai earlier this year.
Guangzhou reported 3,007 local infections on Wednesday, accounting for more than a third of new cases across China, which is facing a six-month high in infections nationwide.
The city of 19 million has become the epicenter of China’s latest Covid outbreak, recording more than 1,000 new cases – a relatively high number by the country’s zero-Covid standards – for five straight days.
As the world moves away from the pandemic, China still insists on using emergency lockdowns, mass testing, extensive contact tracing and quarantines to stamp out infections as soon as they appear. The zero-tolerance approach has faced increasing challenge from the highly contagious Omicron variant, and its heavy economic and social costs have prompted growing public backlash.
The ongoing outbreak is the worst since the pandemic began to hit Guangzhou. The city is the capital of Guangdong Province, which is a major economic powerhouse for China and a global manufacturing hub.
Most of the cases in Guangzhou have been concentrated in the Haizhu district – a mostly residential urban area of 1.8 million people on the south bank of the Pearl River. Haizhu was locked down last Saturday, with residents not leaving home unless necessary and all public transport – from buses to the subway – suspended. The lockdown was originally supposed to last three days, but has since been extended until Friday.
Two more districts – with a combined population of 3.8 million – were locked down on Wednesday as the outbreak widened.
Residents in Liwan, an old district in the west of the city, woke up to orders to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. Colleges and universities in the area were told to close their campuses. Dining in restaurants was banned and businesses were ordered to close except for those providing essential supplies.
On Wednesday afternoon, a third district, remote Panyu, announced a lockdown that will last until Sunday. The district also banned private vehicles and bicycles from the streets.
From Thursday, all primary and secondary schools in the city’s eight urban districts are being moved online, with kindergartens closed. Nursery schools, training institutions and daycare centers will also suspend services, city education officials said at a news conference Wednesday.
Mass testing has been carried out in nine districts across the city and more than 40 metro stations have been closed. Residents considered close contacts of infected people – which in China can range from neighbors to those living in the same building or even an apartment complex – have been moved en masse to central quarantine facilities.
The outbreak has also led to mass cancellations at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, one of the busiest in the country. As of Thursday morning, 85 percent of the nearly 1,000 flights arriving and departing from Guangzhou had been canceled, according to data from flight tracking company Variflight.
“For now, there is still a risk of community spread in non-dangerous areas, and the outbreak remains serious and complicated,” Zhang Yi, deputy director of the Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission, told a news conference on Tuesday.
So far, the lockdown appears to be more targeted and less draconian than those seen in many other cities. While residents living in neighborhoods designated as high-risk cannot leave home, those in so-called low-risk areas within cordoned off neighborhoods can go out to buy groceries and other daily necessities.
But many fear a blanket citywide lockdown could be imminent if the outbreak continues to spread. On WeChat, China’s super app, residents have been sharing graphs comparing Guangzhou’s rising caseload to Shanghai’s in late March, days before the eastern financial hub’s bruising two-month lockdown.
Shanghai officials initially denied a citywide lockdown was necessary, but it was later imposed after the city reported 3,500 daily infections.
Anticipating worse to come, many residents in Guangzhou have stocked up on food and other supplies. “I’ve been buying (groceries and snacks) online like crazy. I’ll probably end up eating leftovers for a month,” said one resident, whose area of Haizhu district has been designated as low-risk by authorities.
Others, angered by the testing restrictions and orders, have taken to social media to vent their frustration. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, posts using slang and expletives in the local Cantonese dialect to criticize the zero-Covid measures have proliferated, seemingly largely avoiding the prying eyes of unsuspecting online censors.
“I learn Cantonese curses everyday in real-time search,” said one Weibo user.
Meanwhile, local authorities across the country are under pressure to step up Covid control measures despite growing public frustration.
This week, videos of Covid workers dressed head-to-toe in hazmat suits beating residents went viral online. After an outcry, police in Linyi City, Shandong Province said in a statement on Tuesday that seven Covid workers were arrested after clashing with residents.
