Is China’s zero Covid game up?

Omicron has broken through China’s Covid wall. On Tuesday, the country saw a record-high of more than 5,000 cases, the highest number since the original Wuhan outbreak. To Brits (and most people around the world), that might sound like a laughably small number – but, as you might expect, China’s zero Covid machine has jumped into action, leading to a disproportionate, severe response.

In the most afflicted areas like Shenzhen and Changchun, public transport has been suspended, non-essential businesses closed, residential compounds locked down. People can leave their homes to take part in compulsory city-wide mass testing (social media is flooded with videos of lengthy unsocially-distanced queues at test sites) and, for now, to shop for necessities (one person per household, every other day). This is bliss compared to those who test positive or get contact traced. Positive cases must serve out their illness in state-designated clinics; and contacts of positive cases (and even contacts of contacts) must quarantine in state-designated facilities (hotels and so on).