As China COVID-19 cases rise, millions more placed under lockdown

China posted its biggest daily jump in COVID cases in more than five months on Wednesday, stepping up containment measures that have seen four cities put under lockdown, as the world’s second biggest economy scrambles to head off a new wave of infections. Most of the new cases were reported near the capital Beijing, but a province in far northeast China also saw a rise in infections, official data showed, amid a resurgence that has seen more than 28 million people placed under home quarantine. While the Chinese city of Wuhan was the initial epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged there in late 2019, China had in recent months largely kept COVID-19 at bay.