China Covid Infections Top 1000 for the First Time in Two Years

China’s daily Covid-19 caseload exceeded 1,000 for the first time in two years, as the highly infectious omicron variant spawns outbreaks at a scale only seen at the peak of the start of the pandemic in Wuhan. The country reported 1,100 domestic infections on Friday, data from the National Health Commission showed. The tally has ballooned from just over 300 cases a day in less than a week, presenting a significant challenge to China’s ongoing, zero-tolerance approach to the virus. The Covid Zero strategy that helped keep China largely virus-free for much of the pandemic now appears to be buckling as omicron repeatedly breaks through one of the the world’s most stringent remaining containment regimes. Covid’s spread in the nation’s biggest cities, including financial hub Shanghai, also makes it difficult to deploy the aggressive but disruptive restrictions officials are increasingly turning to, chief among them lockdowns.