A unusual travel restriction was placed on the people of a northeastern Chinese province on Monday, as the region’s Omicron epidemic contributed to the country’s total number of new local COVID-19 cases so far this year surpassing the total number of cases documented in all of 2021.
On March 13, the National Health Commission (NHC) stated that 1,337 new domestically transmitted COVID infections with verified symptoms were detected on the Chinese mainland, according to the agency. According to Reuters estimates, this boosted the overall number of registrations this year to more than 9,000, compared to 8,378 in 2021.
Jilin province issued an order prohibiting all of its 24.1 million citizens from traveling out of or entering the province, as well as traveling between various locations within the province.
In the last week, new COVID cases have been recorded in Beijing and Shanghai, two of China’s most populated cities, as well as in the coastal provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang, which are all affected by the virus.
After a spike in the number of cases in Shenzhen, China’s Silicon Valley, authorities there have temporarily banned public transportation and recommended people to work from home this week while they conduct city-wide testing after the outbreak.