Coronavirus: what’s life like for the 20 million Chinese back in lockdown?

More than 20 million people across China are in lockdown as the country battles a spike in Covid-19 infections, the worst flare-up since last summer. China reported 135 new locally transmitted cases for Thursday, of which 90 were in the northern province of Hebei, 43 in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, one in the southern region of Guangxi and one in the northwestern province of Shaanxi. A total of 66 asymptomatic cases were also reported.

As of the end of Thursday, 1,001 Covid-19 patients were receiving treatment in hospital and 618 asymptomatic cases, which are not included in the tally, were under medical observation.

The Chinese government first resorted to lockdown measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus about a year ago in Wuhan. Most people knew little about the virus at that time and hundreds of people died every week as hospitals became overwhelmed and doctors and scientists struggled to find a cure.

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