China's Biggest Covid Surge In 2 Years, City Of 9 Million Locks Down: 10 Facts

Changchun in northeaster China has asked its 9 million residents to work from home and said it would start mass testing.

Changchun, the capital of the Jilin province and an important industrial base, says only on person will be allowed to go out every two days to buy "daily necessities".

Covid cases across China have crossed the 1,000 mark this week for the first time since the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Just three weeks ago, there were less than 100 daily cases.

Friday's figures show there were 1,369 new cases.

Authorities in Shanghai and other major cities have stepped up targeted lockdowns and testing to halt Omicron.

Shanghai today ordered its schools to close and shift to online instruction.

Staff at the Shanghai American School told news agency AFP that health personnel visited the campus on Friday to conduct Covid tests on teachers and students, though they were not confined.

In Beijing, several residential compounds have been fully or partially locked down.

Covid-19 was first detected in China in late 2019 but the government has kept it largely under control with snap lockdowns and mass testing, while keeping its borders mostly closed.

But China's central economic planning agency recently warned that big lockdowns can hurt the economy, and a top Chinese scientist said last week that the country should aim to co-exist with the virus like other nations.