The Chinese city of Guangzhou imposed a health quarantine on more than 5 million people, under the pretext of taking rapid and targeted measures to eliminate the spread of the emerging epidemic, and to avoid activating a city-wide lockdown that swept Shanghai earlier this year.

Health authorities in the Chinese city reported that Guangzhou recorded 3,007 local infections with the emerging epidemic, which is more than a third of the new cases reported across China, as the city witnesses the highest level of epidemic spread in six months, becoming the epicenter of the epidemic's spread in the country recently, after more than 1,000 new cases were reported for five consecutive days.

Mass testing for citizens

Despite the world approaching the end of the pandemic, China still insists on imposing sudden lockdowns, conducting mass testing of citizens, tracing contacts, and imposing quarantine to eliminate the infection.

The ongoing spread of the epidemic is considered the worst since the pandemic appeared in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, which is the main economic center of China and a global industrial hub, where infections were concentrated in the Haizhu residential area, which is home to 1.8 million people on the southern bank of the Pearl River.

The Haizhu area has been under full lockdown since last Saturday, where residents were asked not to leave their homes unless necessary, and all public transportation from buses to the metro was suspended. The lockdown was supposed to last only three days but was extended until this Friday, and authorities closed two new areas as the epidemic spread.