China Gives Stay-At-Home Orders With Millions Under Lockdown As COVID Cases Rise

More than 4,000 new cases were reported on Sunday, with two-thirds of the infections in the Jilin province.

China imposes lockdown in its northeast region of Jilin province as COVID cases rise.

(Photo: iStock)

Battling its biggest COVID-19 outbreak in two years, China, on Sunday, 20 March, imposed stay-at-home orders on millions of people in the country's northeast region.

Employing targeted lockdowns, strict travel restrictions and mass testings, the country was successful in keeping the virus at bay post the initial outbreak until now.

However, more than 4,000 new cases were reported across the country on Sunday, with two-thirds of the infections in the Jilin province, AFP reported.

According to the local authorities, Jilin, the second-largest city in north-east China, will impose stay-at-home orders on around its 4.5 million citizens for three days, beginning from Monday night, 21 March.

According to media reports, the latest surge is driven by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, with very few pockets reporting the Delta variant.

On Saturday, Changchun, capital of the Jilin province, said that it would also impose strict restrictions for the next three days.

Since 11 March, Changchun's nine million inhabitants have only been allowed to step out once in every two days to buy groceries.

Tangshan, a city in the northeast of China's Hebei province, has banned traffic on Sunday for 24 hours to try and slow the virus' spread. It will also be conducting tests for its 7.7 million citizens, reported AFP.

The new rules only allow anti-epidemic workers and medical personnel to step out of their houses.

Jilin province has reportedly built two quarantine centres and eight temporary hospitals.

(With inputs from Agence France-Presse.)