BEIJING — Beijing recorded the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in a year and a half on Sunday, as the Chinese capital prepares to host the Winter Olympics in five days.
China will hold the Games in a strict “closed loop” bubble as part of its zero COVID strategy of targeted lockdowns, border restrictions and extended quarantines.
This strategy has helped the world’s second-largest economy keep the number of new infections well below many other countries, but it’s battling localized outbreaks in multiple cities as well as the Olympic bubble.
The upcoming Lunar New Year, China’s biggest national holiday, brings new challenges as millions return to their hometowns and reconnect with family and friends.
Beijing’s total of 20 new cases on Sunday was the city’s highest since June 2020, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).
City authorities sealed off some apartment complexes, while officials in Fengtai district, where most infections were detected on Sunday, began testing about 2 million people for the virus.
The Olympic bubble isolates everyone involved in the Games from the wider Chinese population to limit the risk of infection.
The roughly 60,000 people inside the bubble are tested daily.
Organizers reported 36 Games-related cases on Saturday, bringing the total to more than 100 since the bubble closed on January 4.
The NHC said on Sunday there were 54 new local cases nationwide as the affluent eastern city of Hangzhou and the city of Suifenhe in northeast Heilongjiang province emerged as potential hotspots.
Chinese authorities locked down an area near Beijing this week after a handful of reported cases and appeared not to publicly announce the restrictions that have kept around 1.2 million people in the new Xiong’an area at home.
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