As infections seem likely to surpass their high in April, dissident Chinese authorities are enforcing further restrictions across the nation.
As prospects for a swift end to Beijing’s harsh “zero-COVID” measures dwindle, the number of COVID-19 cases in China is climbing toward record highs, portending further suffering for the second-largest economy in the world.
On Wednesday, the National Health Commission recorded 29,157 illnesses nationally for the day before, which was nearly as many as in April.
On April 13, when Shanghai was three weeks into a severe lockdown that caused food shortages and infrequent outbursts of social unrest, China’s daily caseload peaked at 29,411.
The increase in cases comes after a video that went viral on social media on Wednesday seemed to depict new employee dissatisfaction at Foxconn’s sizable production site in the industrial city of Zhengzhou, an Apple supplier.
People could be seen breaking windows and security cameras, tearing down obstacles, and shouting at officials wearing hazardous suits in the video footage posted on the online site Kuaishou.
Numerous former Foxconn employees have criticized the facility, which houses the biggest iPhone production in the world, for having food shortages and strict quarantine policies.
Two people with knowledge of the situation, according to the Reuters news agency, verified demonstrations at the Zhengzhou factory but declined to offer more information.
More than half of the cases recorded on Wednesday, which included more than 26,400 infections classified as asymptomatic, were from Guangzhou and Chongqing, two megacities in central and southern China that each have a population of more than 35 million.
Infections reached a new peak of 1,486 in Beijing, where officials have closed schools, tightened testing procedures, and limited transit in and out of the city.
Cases in Shanghai and Zhengzhou, which are also dealing with lesser epidemics, increased from the day before as well.
Following similar actions earlier this month that resulted in unusually large-scale public demonstrations, Guangzhou began a five-day lockdown on Monday, while Chengdu began a fresh round of mass testing on Wednesday.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
