BEIJING: China reported its biggest one-day tally of coronavirus infections since the Wuhan outbreak at the start of the pandemic, with efforts to contain its spread set to challenge the strict Covid Zero strategy that’s isolated it from the rest of the world.
The nation announced 526 cases on Monday, including 312 asymptomatic infections, with multiple clusters around the country. Shanghai, which has seldom seen a flareup during the pandemic, saw almost 50 infections. The port city of Qingdao had 163, centered around students at a high school, and the southern manufacturing hub of Dongguan reported 153 cases.
The flareups are set to test China’s Covid Zero playbook, which typically sees mass testing and hardcore lockdowns deployed to stamp out infections. While that’s been effective in stamping out previous outbreaks in a raft of cities, the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant to megacities and economic powerhouses -- including the financial hub of Shanghai -- means authorities face a complicated task to contain case numbers without imposing serious disruptions.
The rise in case numbers also comes as Beijing sends resources, including testing kits and health professionals to Hong Kong, which is reporting tens of thousands of cases each day in its worst ever virus outbreak.
Mainland China and Hong Kong are the last significant Covid-Zero holdouts after places like Singapore and Australia pivoted to viewing the virus as endemic, with the arrival of Omicron throwing the strict zero-tolerance approach into disarray.
