China posted a steep jump in daily COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, with new cases more than doubling from a day earlier to hit a two-year high, raising concerns about the rising economic costs of its tough measures to contain the disease.
A total of 3,507 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms were reported on Monday across more than a dozen provinces and municipalities, up from 1,337 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said.
Most of the new cases were in the northeastern province of Jilin.
Though China’s caseload is still tiny by global standards, health experts said the increase in daily infections over the next few weeks would be key to determine whether its “dynamic zero-COVID” approach, of containing each outbreak quickly as it arises, remains effective against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
Makers of everything from flash drives to glass for Apple’s iPhone screens are warning of shipment delays as they comply with China’s curbs against the disease, putting further strain on global supply chains.
The steep increase has fuelled concern over China’s growth prospects, helping to dent market sentiment, with its stocks closing at 21-month lows on Tuesday and oil prices sliding to a two-week low.
A COVID-19 forecasting system run by Lanzhou University in China’s northwest predicted the current round of infections will eventually be brought under control in early April after an accumulated total of about 35,000 cases.
On Monday, the university said that while the latest outbreak was the most serious on the mainland since the virus was detected in Wuhan in 2020, China could bring it under control by sticking to stringent curbs.
Not only is China’s zero tolerance approach becoming more costly, it yields diminishing returns against highly infectious Omicron, said analyst Yanzhong Huang of U.S. thinktank the Council on Foreign Relations.
