Seventeen million Chinese go back into lockdown as Covid cases surge

Seventeen million people in the Chinese technology industry hub of Shenzhen began their first full day under lockdown on Monday, with restrictions also imposed in Shanghai and other major cities in an effort to halt a major threat to the nation's zero-tolerance Covid strategy.

Healthcare personnel at a Covid isolation facility in Hong Kong. AP - Kin Cheung

Authorities in the southern city of Shenzen took the measures on Sunday in an effort to fight an Omicron flare-up in factories and neighbourhoods linked to nearby Hong Kong, which is recording scores of daily deaths as the virus runs rampant.

Shenzhen is one of ten areas nationwide to issue some level of stay-at-home order.

Health officials have warned that tighter measures could be on their way, as concerns mount over the resilience of China's "zero-Covid" approach in the face of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.

Authorities reported 2,300 new virus cases nationwide on Monday and almost 3,400 a day earlier, the highest daily figure in two years.

Tech stocks tumbled on the Hong Kong exchange in early trading on Monday, on concerns over the impact of the virus in Shenzhen, which is a hub for iPhone maker Foxconn, as well as Huawei and Tencent.

Shanghai tries to avoid full lockdown

In Shanghai, China's largest city, residential areas and offices in some neighbourhoods remained sealed off on Monday, as city authorities try to avoid a full lockdown.

The city reported 170 new virus cases on Monday.

Jilin province in the country's northeast recorded over 1,000 new cases for the second day in a row.

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At least five cities in the province have been locked down since the beginning of March, including the major industrial base of Changchun, whose nine million residents were ordered to stay at home Friday.

China has so far managed to control sporadic domestic Covid-19 outbreaks through a combination of snap lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions, but the latest outbreak is testing the limits of that policy.

Medical expert Zhang Wenhong said Monday that China cannot relax its zero-Covid policy just yet despite the low fatality rate associated with Omicron.