China expands COVID-19 lockdowns

Medical personnel conducts COVID-19 test outside the Ajwa Private Clinic in Shah Alam, Malaysia, on Wednesday. Pic/AFP

Lockdowns have been expanded and a major political conference postponed in a province next to Beijing that is the scene of China's most serious recent COVID-19 outbreak. Residents of the city of Gu'an just south of Beijing have been ordered to stay home for seven days starting from Tuesday. Similar measures have been ordered around the country, particularly in the central city of Wuhan where 11 million people were placed under lockdown for 76 days last winter as the pandemic was just beginning.

40 new cases in Hebei

Hebei has also delayed the meetings of the provincial People's Congress and its advisory body that are usually held in February. It wasn't clear when the meetings would be held. Hebei's provincial health commission on Tuesday reported 40 new confirmed cases, all but one in the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang where transport links have been cut and residents told to stay home.

Most cases from weddings

Local authorities say several dozen of over 300 confirmed cases reported this year in the city appear to be linked to wedding gatherings. One new case was reported in Beijing, where more than a dozen communities and villages have been put under lockdown, and one in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, bringing China's total to 87,591 with 4,634 deaths. That outbreak comes amid measures to curb the further spread of the virus during next month's Lunar New Year holiday. Authorities have called on citizens not to travel, ordered schools to close a week early and conducted testing on a massive scale.

Emergency in Malaysia

Meanwhile, Malaysia has declared a coronavirus emergency that will suspend Parliament at least until August and halt any bids to seek a general election, but critics charged it was a political move by embattled Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to stay in power. The palace said on Tuesday that King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah consented on Monday to Muhyiddin's proposal for an emergency until August 1 to curb the virus spread. Muhyiddin assured citizens that the emergency was "not a military coup and a curfew will not be enforced." Malaysia on Tuesday reported 3,309 new cases, a new daily record, pushing its tally to 1,41,533, from just over 15,000 three months ago. The death toll shot up to 559.

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