China locks down city of 9 million amidst biggest covid outbreak in 2 years

News Network

March 11, 2022

March 11: Chinese authorities sent a northeastern city of nine million people into lockdown on Friday as the country has seen daily COVID-19 cases top 1,000 this week for the first time since the early days of the pandemic, which originated in Wuhan.

The residents of Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province, have been ordered to stay at home while all non-essential businesses and stores are shuttered, state-run media said on Friday. Schools will be closed and all transportation services will be suspended under the indefinite shutdown, the state-run Global Times reported.

One person from each household will be allowed to go out once every two days to buy supplies as the city undergoes a scheduled three rounds of mass testing.

China's National Health Commission reported 1,369 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, with Jilin Province one of the hardest-hit areas during a recent surge driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Other cities have also started taking measures with targeted lockdowns, including Shanghai, which ordered all schools to move to online classes starting on Saturday.

The latest outbreak is putting China's "zero-COVID" approach to controlling the spread of the virus to its sternest test yet. The government has managed to limit outbreaks through mass testing, shutdowns and tight border controls.

China kept cases to a minimum during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in February, using a closed-loop system that kept all participants separated from the general public.

However, the Omicron variant has proved extraordinarily difficult to contain and many countries have shifted towards a strategy of opening up and living with the virus even as case counts skyrocket.

Hong Kong, which has also followed a zero-tolerance playbook, has been facing an "unprecedented health crisis" of soaring case counts and the world's highest COVID death rates in recent weeks.

On Friday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang defended China's "coordinated approach to COVID response and economic and social development" while answering questions at a press conference. Li said that officials would work to make the response "more scientific and targeted based on the current situation," but did not offer a timeline for any changes.

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23 Israel-linked terrorists killed, 46 captured by Iran army

News Network

November 15,2024

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has killed or captured 69 terrorists linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad during a major counterterrorism drill in the country's southeast, its spokesman says.

General Ahmad Shafaei, the spokesman for the “Martyrs of Security” drill, said Friday that a total of 23 terrorists have been killed and another 46 arrested in various clean-up operations ever since the IRGC Ground Force launched it in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on November 1.

Seven terrorists have also turned themselves in during the period.

“The undeniable fact about terrorists is that they rely on arrogant powers, particularly the intelligence service of the wicked and vicious Zionist regime," Shafaei said.

“Unfortunately, weapons and munitions at terrorists’ disposal are among the most sophisticated ones in the world. This accounts for their heavy dependence.”

The official stated that several members of the disbanded terror teams were non-Iranian nationals, who had been hired by foreign intelligence agencies to carry out acts of sabotage and terror inside Iran.

In a most recent operation, six terrorists were arrested and four others were eliminated, three of whom were non-Iranians, he added.

On October 26, ten members of Iran's law enforcement forces were killed in a terrorist attack in the Gohar Kuh district of Taftan in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault, which was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Iran, primarily in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Its tactics include the abduction of border guards as well as targeting civilians and police stations within the province to incite chaos and disorder.

In January, Iran launched a military operation during which the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist group was targeted in missile strikes, destroying its infrastructure.

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