China reinstates COVID-19 restrictions amid a rise in infections

China is reinstating measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus in several cities amid a spike in infections. 

Thus far, China has shut down an industrial city, urged residents not to leave Beijing and closed down schools in Shanghai due to an increase in cases. 

Chinese officials reported 588 new confirmed cases in the 24 hours ending on Friday, but no deaths. That included 134 confirmed cases in the northeastern Jilin province, a number which prompted a shutdown of Changchun, a city with 9 million residents, The Associated Press reported.

On Saturday, the mayor of Jilin was replaced, as was the mayor of Changchun, according to the AP.

China operates under a “zero tolerance” strategy, finding and isolating every case and sometimes conducting mass testing in cities and towns.

Hong Kong has also battled a wave of the novel coronavirus since February, and hospitals, morgues and isolation centers are overflowing. On Friday, 29,381 new infections and 196 deaths were reported in the city, according to Reuters.

The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, warned they were not at the peak of the wave yet, and urged more residents to get vaccinated. Ninety percent of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, but only 53 percent of those over 80 years old have been vaccinated, Reuters reported.

“Over 90 percent of the deaths were those who had not been fully vaccinated. We need to catch up and vaccinate every Hong Kong citizen,” Lam said at a news briefing, per Reuters.