Analysis: China's COVID governance under pressure as Omicron spreads

China's public health governance is expected to come under acute pressure in coming weeks as the biggest wave of COVID-19 cases since the 2020 Wuhan outbreak stretches medical resources, tests the country's ability to contain infections and strains the economy. In the past 10 weeks, China has reported more new local symptomatic cases - more than 14,000 - than in all of 2021 amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, fuelling fears of hard lockdowns of cities and economic instability. Some parts of China are already feeling the crunch as they scramble to test local populations and quarantine the infected under China's strict COVID-19 playbook, despite relatively low caseloads by global standards.