On October 26, China recorded 29 new Covid-19 cases, including 6 cases in Lanzhou city. The city government immediately imposed strict restrictions on people and activities in the city. Specifically, Lanzhou residents are required to stay at home and their movements will be strictly controlled, only allowed to go out in case of need to buy necessities or for medical purposes.
Services such as buses and taxis have also been suspended. According to Chinese media reports, Lanzhou Railway Station has suspended more than 70 trains, including important rail lines to major cities such as Beijing and Xi'an. Flights to Lanzhou from other provinces and cities have also been canceled and it is unclear when they will resume.
Lanzhou city was deserted in the early days of lockdown. - Photo: Ruptly
While the rest of the world is trying to open up and adopt policies to live with Covid, China has maintained a “zero Covid-19” strategy and implemented localized lockdowns in some areas. The latest outbreak in China has been linked to the Delta variant, with 198 cases as of October 17. Health officials have warned that the cases in the recent outbreak are linked to a group of domestic tourists who traveled from Shanghai to several other cities.
Beijing, which reported three new cases of Covid-19, has also imposed some restrictions, with people unable to visit tourist sites in the city and encouraged not to leave the city unless necessary. Inner Mongolia, home to about 35,000 people, is also under a two-week quarantine from October 25 after a new cluster of about 30 cases was reported last week.
Although China's number of infections is extremely low compared to other countries, the country's authorities are determined to fight the epidemic with just a few months to go before the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
