China locks down city of 9 million amid new spike in cases

BEIJING (AP) — China has ordered a lockdown of the 9 million residents of the northeastern city of Changchun amid a new spike in COVID-19 cases attributed to the highly contagious omicron.

Residents are required to remain home with one family member permitted to venture out to buy food and other necessities every two days.

All have to undergo three rounds of mass testing.

The latest lockdowns also include Yucheng with 500,000 people in in the eastern province of Shandong.

They show China is sticking to the draconian approach to the pandemic it has enforced for most of the past two years, despite some earlier indications that authorities would be implementing more targeted measures.

China reported 397 cases nationwide on Friday.

Just two cases were detected within Changchun.