Nearly 30 Million Under Lockdown in China as Virus Surges

Workers in protective clothing sit near a locked down area after the detection of new cases of Covid-19 in Shanghai on March 14 Hector RETAMAL AFP
Workers in protective clothing sit near a locked down area after the detection of new cases of Covid-19 in Shanghai on March 14 Hector RETAMAL AFP
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Nearly 30 Million Under Lockdown in China as Virus Surges

Workers in protective clothing sit near a locked down area after the detection of new cases of Covid-19 in Shanghai on March 14 Hector RETAMAL AFP
Workers in protective clothing sit near a locked down area after the detection of new cases of Covid-19 in Shanghai on March 14 Hector RETAMAL AFP

Nearly 30 million people were under lockdown across China on Tuesday, as surging virus cases returned mass tests and hazmat suited health officials to city streets on a scale not seen since the start of the pandemic.

China reported 5,280 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, more than double the previous day's tally as the highly-transmissible Omicron variant spreads across a country which has tethered tightly to a 'zero-Covid' strategy.

That approach, which pivots on hard localized lockdowns and has left China virtually cut off from the outside world for two years, appears to be on the line as Omicron finds its way into communities.

At least 13 cities nationwide were fully locked down on Tuesday, while various other cities had partial lockdowns, according to AFP.

The northeastern province of Jilin was the worst-hit, with over 3,000 new cases on Tuesday, according to the National Health Commission.

Residents of several cities there including the provincial capital of Changchun -- home to nine million people -- are under stay-at-home orders.

Shenzhen -- the southern tech hub of 17.5 million people -- is three days into a lockdown with many factories closed and supermarket shelves emptying, while China's largest city Shanghai is under a lattice of restrictions -- which fall short of a citywide shutdown.

But scenes of closed neighborhoods, panic buying and police cordons cast back to the early phase of the pandemic, which first emerged in China in late 2019 but has eased in much of the rest of the world.

Tuesday was the sixth day in a row that more than 1,000 new cases were recorded in the world's second-biggest economy, with experts forecasting a dent to growth as the virus billows out.

"The recent Covid outbreak and renewed restrictions, notably the lockdown in Shenzhen, will weigh on consumption and cause supply disruptions in the near term," Tommy Wu, of Oxford Economics said in a briefing note.

He added it will be "challenging" for China to meet its official GDP growth target for the year of around 5.5 percent.

Hong Kong stocks plunged by more than three per cent Tuesday, extending the previous day's tech-fuelled rout.

Dozens of domestic flights at airports in Beijing and Shanghai were cancelled Tuesday morning, flight tracking data showed.

An outbreak at Volkswagen Group factories in the Jilin city of Changchun also prompted three sites to shut Monday for at least three days, according to a spokesman.

Various other cities including Shanghai have sealed off certain neighborhoods and buildings, as authorities have sought to minimize disruption to daily life.

A top Chinese medical expert Zhang Wenhong has raised the prospect of softening the "zero-Covid" strategy in the face of the Omicron variant. But in the short term, he warned any relaxation of mass testing and lockdowns was impossible.

Jilin's governor vowed to go all-out to "achieve community zero-Covid in a week" during an emergency meeting Monday night, state media reported.

Residents of Jilin, which is on the border with North Korea, were banned from travelling out of and around the province Monday.



North Korea Bans Foreign Tourists to Newly Opened Beach Resort

(FILES) Domestic tourists watch as a man uses a slide into a swimming pool at the Myongsasimni Water Park in the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Wonsan, North Korea's Kangwon Province on July 2, 2025. (Photo by KIM Won Jin / AFP)
(FILES) Domestic tourists watch as a man uses a slide into a swimming pool at the Myongsasimni Water Park in the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Wonsan, North Korea's Kangwon Province on July 2, 2025. (Photo by KIM Won Jin / AFP)
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North Korea Bans Foreign Tourists to Newly Opened Beach Resort

(FILES) Domestic tourists watch as a man uses a slide into a swimming pool at the Myongsasimni Water Park in the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Wonsan, North Korea's Kangwon Province on July 2, 2025. (Photo by KIM Won Jin / AFP)
(FILES) Domestic tourists watch as a man uses a slide into a swimming pool at the Myongsasimni Water Park in the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Wonsan, North Korea's Kangwon Province on July 2, 2025. (Photo by KIM Won Jin / AFP)

North Korea is banning the entry of foreign tourists to a recently opened mega beach resort, a move that dims prospects for the complex that leader Kim Jong Un hailed it as “one of the greatest successes this year.”

DPR Korea Tour, a website run by North Korea’s tourism authorities, said in a notice Friday that the eastern coastal Wonsan-Kalma tourist complex “is temporarily not receiving foreign tourists.” It gave no further details including why a ban was established or how long it would last, The Associated Press reported.

North Korea says the complex can accommodate nearly 20,000 guests. The resort opened to domestic tourists July 1 before receiving a small group of Russian tourists last week. Observers expected North Korea to open the resort to Chinese tourists while largely blocking other international tourists.

The announcement came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew to the complex to meet Kim and Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui for talks last weekend.

North Korea and Russia have sharply expanded military and other cooperation in recent years, with North Korea supplying weapons and troops to back Russia’s war against Ukraine. During a meeting with Choe, Lavrov promised to take steps to support Russian travel to the zone.

“I am sure that Russian tourists will be increasingly eager to come here,” he said.

But experts say North Korea likely decided to halt foreigner travels to the zone because of a newspaper article by a Russian reporter who travelled with Lavrov that implied North Koreans at the zone appeared to be mobilized by authorities and not real tourists.

“The North Korean government is believed to have determined that it would face some negative consequences when it opens the site to foreigners,” said Oh Gyeong-seob, an analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification.

Oh said the ban would include Russians, but the North Korea-focused NK News website, citing tour groups specializing in North Korea trips, said Russians won't likely be targeted.

Analyst Lee Sangkeun of Seoul's Institute for National Security Strategy said the ban could be associated with difficulties in recruiting Russian tourists because many would consider North Korea too far away and the trip too expensive.

Experts say North Korea must open the Wonsan-Kalma zone, the country’s biggest tourist complex, to Russian and Chinese tourists, given what was likely a huge construction and operational expenditure from the country’s tight budget.

“If foreign tourists aren't allowed to the site, no Russian rubles, Chinese yuans and dollars won't come in. Then, North Korea can't break even and it has to shut down the resort,” said Ahn Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korean Studies think tank in Seoul.

Kim has said the site would be “one of the greatest successes this year” and “the proud first step” in tourism development. North Korea’s state media reports the Wonsan-Kalma site has been crowded with local tourists.

The first group of 15 Russian tourists arrived in the resort July 11 after visiting Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, NK News reported earlier this week.

“It was magnificent. Everything is new, clean and stunning," Russian tourist Nina Svirida said in the report.

North Korea has been slowly easing the curbs imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and reopening its borders in phases. But the country hasn’t said if it would fully resume international tourism.

Chinese group tours, which made up more than 90% of visitors before the pandemic, remain stalled. In February, North Korea allowed a small group of international tourists to visit the northeastern city of Rason, only to stop the program in less than a month.