On Friday, a nine-million-person Chinese metropolis was placed under lockdown, and Shanghai closed its schools as officials worked to prevent a COVID-19 epidemic that has pushed countrywide infections to their highest level in two years.

Changchun, the capital of northeastern Jilin province and a key industrial base, has ordered citizens to stay at home, with one person allowed out every two days to purchase “basic needs.”

The city also suspended all public transportation, ordered schools and businesses to close, and announced mass testing. For the first time since the pandemic’s early days in 2020, China’s daily coronavirus case count surpassed 1,000 this week.

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This is an increase from less than 100 cases just three weeks earlier, as the highly transmissible Omicron form puts China’s zero-COVID policy to fighting the pandemic to the test.

COVID-19 was discovered in China in late 2019, however, the government has kept the case count extremely low by international standards by implementing a mix of emergency lockdowns, mass testing, and mostly blocked borders.

According to the daily official count on Friday, there were 1,369 cases spread among more than a dozen regions.

Jilin, which has recorded hundreds of instances in recent days, is one of more than a dozen provinces, as well as major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, that are experiencing an increase.

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After scores of cases surfaced in the eastern economic powerhouse in recent days, Shanghai ordered its schools to close and convert to online instruction for the foreseeable future on Friday.

As the number of cases climbed, the country’s National Health Commission said on Friday that fast antigen tests will be used. The kits will be accessible online or at pharmacies for clinics and regular persons to purchase for “self-testing,” according to the health commission, while nucleic acid tests will remain the primary way of testing.

The government has staked much of its prestige on its ability to regulate COVID-19, and Friday’s actions appeared to dash expectations that China will abandon its disruptive zero-tolerance policy anytime soon.

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The difficulties of a zero-COVID policy have been highlighted in Hong Kong, where conflicting instructions from the local authorities have fueled food stockpiling and public worries that individuals would be taken away to be isolated.

The most recent massive lockdown in China occurred in December when the city of Xi’an kept its 13 million inhabitants at home for two weeks due to an epidemic.

However, in the face of growing pandemic weariness, senior Chinese officials have recently encouraged local officials around the nation to avoid such harsh measures.

As the number of reported cases has increased since late February, only relatively modest or highly focused interventions have been implemented in impacted regions.

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Authorities in Shanghai, on the other hand, have increasingly sought to rapidly shut down particular schools, companies, restaurants, and shopping centres due to close-contact worries.

This has resulted in photographs on the internet of students and instructors in the city being imprisoned for up to 48 hours on campuses, as well as patrons being locked in restaurants or shops while awaiting tests.

Long lineups have formed outside hospitals as individuals race to receive a negative COVID test, and social media discussion groups have sparked with each momentarily closed mall.

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“Every day I leave to work, I don’t know if I’ll be able to come home,” one Shanghai social media user stated.

“Working is like ‘Squid Game,’ there are less and fewer people,” the user said, alluding to the South Korean television series featuring a series of life-or-death contests.

Some Shanghai museums will also be temporarily shuttered beginning Friday, according to the local authorities. China’s official economic planning body has cautioned that large-scale lockdowns might be detrimental to the economy.

Last Monday, a leading Chinese scientist stated that the country, like other nations, should attempt to coexist with the virus.