Yvonne Yong (00:01):
Shopping centers, parks and schools in several Beijing districts shut and some residential compounds under lockdown. Officials are calling for people to stay home as COVID case numbers climb higher.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
[foreign language 00:00:15].
Speaker 3 (00:15):
You can’t go anywhere. Everything’s closed. Customers can’t come either. What can you do? You can’t do anything.
Yvonne Yong (00:21):
In the capital, three COVID-related deaths have been reported, the first since May. There were nearly 1,000 new infections recorded, pushing the national tally to peaks not seen since April. Coronavirus measures have been eased over the past week, but China’s still pursuing its Zero-COVID policy.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
[foreign language 00:00:42].
Speaker 5 (00:41):
Right now, I don’t know how it will go. The policy is changing every day. I feel though that China’s COVID policy is still pretty good.
Yvonne Yong (00:49):
The spike in cases in the Southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou, home to nearly 19 million people, has prompted officials to launch central screening centers and lock down the busy Bayiun District for five days. Other cities, including Jingzhou in Central Hunan province and Chongqing in the Southwest are also battling flareups. Recent efforts by the government to make its COVID-19 curbs more targeted had sparked hopes of a more significant easing, although Asian share markets and oil prices have slipped as investors fret about the economic fallout from China’s COVID situation. Analysts don’t expect an exit from Zero-COVID until the second half of next year.
(01:31)
Yvonne Yong, ABC News.