La Xina demana una ciutat de 4.5 milions en confinament de tres dies per COVID-19

The government authorities in China announced that 4.5 million residents of northeastern city of Jilin will have to go into a three-day lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus, following the country’s largest coronavirus outbreak in over two years. 

Jilin stay-at-home order starts on Monday night and will be in effect for at least 72 hours.

Over four thousand new COVID-19 cases were recorded in China yesterday – the highest number since the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago. Two-thirds of the recorded deaths occurred in Jilin province which borders North Korea.

The deaths of two coronavirus-positive patients were reported in Jilin province on Saturday. Chinese authorities claim that both fatalities had ‘underlying health conditions’ though and didn’t die due to their coronavirus infections. Before that, not a single coronavirus-related death had been registered in China in more than a year.

Jilin Province’s capital, Changchun, has also been under severe restrictions since March 11. Its nine million people are only allowed to leave their houses to buy groceries, and not more often than once every two days. 

In the meantime, Chinese government has eased the COVID-19 restrictions in the South of the country. China’s tech hub Shenzhen will partly lift its lockdown, imposed last week. The city’s public transportation fully resumed on Monday, but some non-essential businesses remain closed.

As China is recording the spike in new COVID-19 cases, Beijing has reacted by sacking several high-ranking officials in Jilin Province, including the mayor of Jilin City.

The Communist Party secretary and top manager at Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology University, was fired following an on-campus outbreak. According to media reports, he was dismissed for “negligence and an ineffective response” to the cluster of infections.

Six local officials were fired in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, including a deputy director of the provincial public-security department.