China orders largest lockdown in two years after Covid outbreak

China says it is facing its “most difficult moment in the last two years” as it locks down more than 50 million people following a Covid outbreak.

Health care workers in Beijing. Picture: Getty Images.

China has locked down more than 50 million people following a Covid outbreak which has been branded as “the most difficult moment in the last two years”.

There are about 11,000 active cases in the nation that is relentlessly pursuing a zero-Covid policy.

More than two years after the virus was first found in Wuhan, millions of people have been forced to stay inside following an explosion in cases.

China has stepped up efforts to control a recent surge in coronavirus cases across the country, locking down major cities like Shenzhen and Changchun. Picture: Getty Images.

Shanghai-based virologist Zhang Wenhong told the American Broadcasting Company that the latest flare-up was “the most difficult moment in the last two years”.

On Monday, authorities announced that all 24 million people in Jilin province would go into lockdown. It came just after 17 million people in Shenzhen and 10 million residents in Dongguan were told to stay at home.

A Covid forecasting system run by Lanzhou University has predicted the current round of infections would be brought under control in early April after infecting around 35,000 people.

The country is trying to maintain its Covid zero policy. Picture: Getty Images.

There is concern the huge lockdowns would impact tech companies in the areas near Shenzhen.

Apple supplier, Foxconn, has shut down two of its plants in the area and relocated elsewhere.

State-run media has blamed the recent outbreak on other parts of the world.

“Epidemiologists believe the explosion of cases outside China, as many countries dropped their Covid-19 policies, make it difficult to detect the more concealed yet highly contagious cases,” a story in the Global Times said.

Later in the article, the author then wrote the virus was “not as powerful as it was before” and there had been no deaths, and very few severe cases reported.

Hundreds of cases were reported in other provinces and cities along China’s east coast and inland as well.

“Every day when I go to work, I worry that if our office building will suddenly be locked down then I won’t be able to get home, so I have bought a sleeping bag and stored some fast food in the office in advance, just in case,” Shanghai resident Yimeng Li told AP.