China shows record number of COVID-19 cases

About 3,400 cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in China over the past day, which is the highest since the pandemic began in February 2020, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports.

Due to a sharp spike in the disease across the country, authorities have closed schools and put several northeastern cities on lockdown as nearly 19 provinces seek to contain localized outbreaks of the Delta and Omicron variants.

The major city of Jilin in northeast China has been partially closed, with hundreds of neighborhoods isolated from each other with roadblocks, a local government official told AFP on Sunday.

Yanji, a city of 700,000 on the border with North Korea, is completely isolated.

In China's largest city, Shanghai, authorities have decided to rely on social distancing by temporarily closing schools, businesses, restaurants, and malls rather than enforcing mass quarantines. Long queues have also been seen outside hospitals across the city as people rush to get tested for COVID-19.

Faced with a rise in cases, the introduction of rapid antigen tests was announced on March 11, which may indicate a relaxation of the Chinese Communist Party's health policy.

Last week, a leading Chinese scientist said the country should strive to live with the virus, as other countries have done. However, the Chinese government does not exclude the possibility of resorting to more stringent restrictions.