China: Covid restrictions in place at centre of factory hub Guangzhou

All primary and middle schools in Haizhu district, where about 10% of the city’s total population lives, will halt in-person lessons from Monday. The restrictions come more than a week after Huadu district shut entertainment venues and schools and, while a small number of neighborhoods were allowed to ease curbs on Sunday, most of the area remains subject to control measures. Guangzhou reported 69 new infections for Sunday.

The latest curbs coincide with the end of the Communist Party’s once-in-five-years congress, where President Xi Jinping reinforced the rectitude of his Covid Zero policy but gave few indicators of how the strategy may play out going forward. His appointment of Li Qiang, a close ally who oversaw the two-month lockdown of Shanghai earlier this year, to number two on the Politburo’s supreme Standing Committee has also clouded the outlook for any easing of the virus policy. 

While Li initially took a lighter-touch approach to China’s strict Covid Zero policy, a surge in cases in Shanghai prompted him to seal off the city, leading to rare social unrest and causing the financial hub’s economy to shrink by almost 14% in the second quarter. Li is now set to become premier in March, despite never having served as vice premier — a prerequisite for the post for decades.

The party congress wouldn’t be the occasion for major policy changes, with a gradual relaxation of Covid Zero expected to start in the second quarter of 2023, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts including Andrew Tilton wrote in a report. Policy implementation could be more efficient though, with personnel-related issues related to party roles settled, the report said. 

Nationwide, China reported 919 new local infections, the highest since Oct. 14. The northwestern region of Xinjiang still accounts for most of the country’s cases even as the tally eases from its recent high. Shaanxi province’s capital, Xi’an, which locked down some areas last week, reported 51 cases. 

China reported 1,076 new COVID-19 infections on Oct. 23, of which 221 were symptomatic and 855 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday. That is compared with 998 new cases a day earlier – 207 symptomatic and 791 asymptomatic infections. China counts the two types of cases separately.

There were no new deaths, same as a day earlier, keeping fatalities at 5,226. As of Oct. 23, mainland China had confirmed symptomatic 257,583 cases.

China capital Beijing reported eight symptomatic and two asymptomatic cases, versus seven symptomatic and one asymptomatic cases the previous day, local government data showed. 

Financial hub Shanghai reported one symptomatic and 11 asymptomatic cases, compared with no symptomatic and 12 asymptomatic cases a day before, the local health authority reported.

The southern technology hub of Shenzhen reported three new locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, compared with 11 the day before.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.