China is dealing with the worst Covid-19 outbreak since the country successfully brought the pandemic under control in 2020, forcing major cities to rush to restrict business activities.
China’s National Health Commission on March 14 said that the country recorded 1,337 new cases in the past 24 hours due to the fast-spreading variant of Omicron. About 17.5 million residents of the city of Shenzhen have been locked down for at least a week, threatening to disrupt and halt production in this key technology hub.
Shenzhen, the largest city in the manufacturing hub of Guangdong province with the nickname China’s “Silicon Valley”, has ordered all businesses not related to essential public services to suspend operations or let employees work from home for a week from March 14.
According to CNBC, Shenzhen has stopped public transport services and started the third large-scale testing across the city. Shenzhen has recorded more than 400 cases of Covid-19 since the end of February.
Although the number of cases in China is lower than in many other countries, the rapid increase of Covid-19 cases in recent days has caused local governments to race to control the epidemic in accordance with the “Zero Covid-19”.
Bloomberg reported that Shanghai had suspended in-person classes and stopped intercity buses, while the industrial center of Changchun in Jilin province, a city of about 9 million people and accounting for about 11 percent of gross domestic product. China’s annual car sales in 2020, closed since last week.
Economists at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) say widespread lockdowns could hit 50% of the world’s second-largest economy’s gross domestic product (GDP). Raymond Yeung, the chief China economist at ANZ, said many other big cities could follow in Shenzhen’s footsteps.
Bloomberg experts said that as of March 9, 14 provinces with high or medium risk of infection accounted for 54.4% of China’s GDP. Meanwhile, Nomura Holdings Finance Company (Japan) downgraded China’s GDP growth outlook for this year to 4.3%, much lower than the previous forecast of 5.2%.
According to Reuters, research by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that continuing to implement measures such as wearing masks, social distancing and blockade would help maintain the number of infections under control. The agency warned that daily Covid-19 cases in Guangdong could increase to more than 75,000 if the blockade is lifted and travel is eased.
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Source: Vietnam Insider