Lockdown in a China Town

NEW DELHI, March 11: While India recorded 4,194 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, China on Friday ordered a virtual lockdown of the north-eastern city of Changchun, the home for a population of nine million people, following reports of new Coronavirus cases in the area.

Residents have been asked to remain home and undergo three rounds of mass testing, while non-essential businesses have been closed and transport links suspended.

All these tough measures are only for China reporting another 397 cases of local transmission nationwide on Friday, 98 of them in Jilin province that surrounds Changchun. Just two cases were detected within the city itself, although authorities have repeatedly pledged to lock down any community where one or more cases are found under China’s “zero tolerance” approach to the pandemic.

Another 93 cases were found in the nearby city of Jilin that bears the same name as the surrounding province. Authorities have already ordered a partial lockdown in the city and severed travel links with other cities.

(Manas Dasgupta)