China is expanding restrictions due to COVID-19 and isolating almost a million people in the country’s east.

Nearly a million residents of Zhongyuan District, one of the most populous in Zhengzhou, have been ordered to stay at home since Monday, except when they need to be tested for the novel coronavirus and non-essential businesses will be closed. to local media in China.

The city is home to an iPhone production center, so the situation in the region once again threatens to interrupt its production as part of President Xi Jinping’s “Covid Zero” policy.

China clinging to poles’covid zero’, which consist of closures and mass tests to control the biggest outbreak in two months, despite the high cost. The policies have slowed the growth of the world’s second-largest economy and disrupted global supply chains as key manufacturing centers – from cars to phones to Christmas trees – face disruptions due to lockdowns and reopenings, reports say. Bloomberg.

The extension of restrictions surprises neighbors, as authorities have said in previous days that there will be no total shutdown in the city.

“Residents and employees arriving (returning) in Zheng are requested to faithfully comply with epidemic prevention and control regulations, abide by work requirements, and take seriously violations of regulations that cause risk transfer in accordance with regulations,” the statement said. authorities.

Zero COVID policy will continue

The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (ruling), published an article saying that the strict zero-COVID policy is “sustainable” and “should continue.”

“The more outbreaks are reported and the more difficult the preventive work is, the more we must realize that the zero COVID policy is sustainable and must continue,” the media said, citing the latest outbreaks in various geographic locations in China. , which led to complete or partial lockdown in some cities.

The newspaper describes the pandemic as a “big test” and assures that the economy will only stabilize “if the pandemic can be prevented.”

Germany is on alert for a new wave of COVID-19

According to Gerald Gass, President of the Association of German Hospitals, the rapid increase in COVID-19 infections in the new autumn wave is forcing German hospitals to work at their limit.

The number of beds occupied by positive patients has increased by 50% compared to last week, and hospitals are facing “extremely difficult weeks,” he told the RND media group.

For his part, Director of the Registry of Intensive Medicine (DIVI) Christian Karagiannidis explained to the same media group that in some regions of Germany there are already outbreaks in which there are almost no free beds in intensive care units.

(According to Europa Press and AFP)