China Locks Down 1M in Wuhan

A million people in the first city ever to experience a COVID lockdown have been locked down again. As part of China's zero COVID strategy, restrictions were imposed on Wuhan's Jiangxia district after routine testing detected two asymptomatic cases and contact tracing detected two more, the BBC reports. Restaurants and entertainment venues in the district have been closed and residents of four neighborhoods deemed high-risk have been ordered to stay in their homes for three days, reports CNN. People in medium-risk neighborhoods have been confined to residential compounds. Public transport in the area has been suspended and residents have been told not to leave the district.

The "temporary control measures" are designed to "further reduce the flow of people, lower the risk of cross-infection and achieve dynamic zero-COVID in the shortest time possible," authorities said in a statement. When the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan in early 2020, the city of 12 million people was placed under a strict lockdown—a move the world found shocking at the time, but one that was soon followed by many other cities and countries, the BBC notes. In Shanghai, a 2-month lockdown was imposed this spring after the country's biggest COVID outbreak since Wuhan in 2020. (New research backs up the theory that the pandemic originated at a market in Wuhan.)