More lockdowns in China as Hong Kong holds off on new restrictions amid COVID-19 surge

China banned most people from leaving a coronavirus-hit northeastern province and mobilized military reservists Monday as the fast-spreading "stealth Omicron" variant fuels the country's biggest outbreak since the start of the pandemic two years ago.

The National Health Commission reported 1,337 locally transmitted cases in the latest 24-hour period across dozens of mainland cities, including 895 in the industrial province of Jilin. A government notice said that police permission would be required for people to leave the area or travel from one city to another.

The hard-hit province sent 7,000 reservists to help with the response, from keeping order and registering people at testing centres to using drones to carry out aerial spraying and disinfection, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Hundreds of cases were reported in other provinces and cities along China's east coast and inland as well. Beijing, which had six new cases, and Shanghai, with 41, locked down residential and office buildings where infected people had been found.

"Every day when I go to work, I worry that if our office building will suddenly be locked down then I won't be able to get home, so I have bought a sleeping bag and stored some fast food in the office in advance, just in case," said Yimeng Li, a Shanghai resident.

While mainland China's numbers are small compared to many other countries, and even the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong, they are the highest since COVID-19 killed thousands in the central city of Wuhan in early 2020. No deaths have been reported in the latest outbreaks.

No further curbs in Hong Kong, for now

Meanwhile, Hong Kong on Monday reported 26,908 new cases and 249 deaths in its latest 24-hour period. The city, which is a special administrative region, counts its cases differently than the mainland, combining both rapid antigen tests and PCR test results.

The city's leader, Carrie Lam, said authorities would not tighten pandemic restrictions for now.

"I have to consider whether the public, whether the people would accept further measures," she said at a news briefing.

Lam said there was limited room to tighten further, with the global financial hub already having put in place the strictest measures since the pandemic started. Gatherings of more than two people are banned, most venues are shut — including schools — and masks are compulsory everywhere, even when exercising outdoors.

"The government has to be very careful before tightening social distancing measures further ... with the need to consider the mental health of citizens," she said.

Hong Kong has reported more than 700,000 COVID-19 infections and about 4,200 deaths, most of them in the past three weeks.

Deaths have spiked, particularly among the city's unvaccinated elderly. Only 35 per cent of those 80 and older have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine, according to government data.

Blame, anger from the mainland

Some mainland Chinese internet users took to social media platforms to express anger at Hong Kong, saying it had failed to control its outbreak and blaming it for latest surge in infections.

"Shenzhen people have been scolding Hong Kong every day for the past month. It's very clear that it has caused so much trouble for others," said one internet user, called Chen Shui, posting on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Officials on Sunday locked down the southern city of Shenzhen, which has 17.5 million people and is a major tech and finance hub that borders Hong Kong.

Lam said last week that the government had no time frame for a potential compulsory mass testing of Hong Kong's 7.4 million residents, most of whom live in tightly packed highrise apartment blocks sharing lifts.

Hong Kong opened its fourth community isolation facility on Sunday, aimed at providing more than 1,000 beds.

The city is building about 90,000 isolation units in total, with the help of mainland authorities, to house people with mild or no symptoms. They have been opening in stages with all expected to be completed in coming months.

Zero-tolerance strategy

Mainland China has seen relatively few infections since the initial Wuhan outbreak as the government has held fast to its zero-tolerance strategy, which is focused on stopping transmission of the coronavirus by relying on strict lockdowns and mandatory quarantines for anyone who has come into contact with a positive case.

The government has indicated it will continue to stick to its strategy of stopping transmission for the time being.

On Monday, Zhang Wenhong, a prominent infectious disease expert at a hospital affiliated with Shanghai's Fudan University, noted in an essay for China's business outlet Caixin, that the numbers for the mainland were still in the beginning stages of an "exponential rise."

China's vast passenger rail network said it would cut service significantly, and both China Railway and airlines said they would offer free refunds to people who had already bought tickets. Shanghai suspended bus service to other cities and provinces.

Shanghai has recorded 713 cases in March, of which 632 are asymptomatic cases. China counts positive and asymptomatic cases separately in its national numbers. Schools in China's largest city have switched to remote learning.

Driven by 'stealth Omicron'

In Beijing, several buildings were sealed off over the weekend. Residents said they were willing to follow the zero-tolerance policies despite any personal impact.

"I think only when the epidemic is totally wiped out can we ease up," said Tong Xin, 38, a shop owner in the Silk Market, a tourist-oriented mall in the Chinese capital.

Much of the current outbreak across Chinese cities is being driven by the variant commonly known as "stealth Omicron," or the B.A.2 lineage of the Omicron variant, Zhang noted. Early research suggests it spreads faster than the original Omicron, which itself spread faster than the original virus and other variants.

"But if our country opens up quickly now, it will cause a large number of infections in people in a short period of time," Zhang wrote Monday.

"No matter how low the death rate is, it will still cause a run on medical resources and a short-term shock to social life, causing irreparable harm to families and society."