Mass COVID-19 testing in China amid rising cases

Following a spike in coronavirus cases, the Chinese city Chengdu has announced it will conduct mass COVID-19 testing from Thursday to Sunday.

According to the city's government, households are allowed to send one person per day to shop for daily necessities.

Due to an outbreak in the Sichuan province, all residents in Chengdu have been ordered to stay at home from 6 pm.

The city had previously imposed the closure of indoor entertainment and cultural locations along with limited staff entry to staff for basic functioning.

Curtailing the activities of tens of millions of people, several of China's biggest cities have stepped up COVID-19 restrictions this week.

Although two northern provincial capitals extended them slightly, authorities looking to balance economic needs with the effort to contain every outbreak said the curbs would run for just a few days.

Despite the cost to the world's second-largest economy China's so-called "dynamic COVID zero" policy makes it an outlier as other countries gradually do away with curbs.

A video shared on Chinese social media showing breakfast being served at a quarantine facility in the Shandong province went viral as netizens compared the delivery to how food is served to animals in a zoo. 

In the highest number since April, 41 cities responsible for 32 per cent of China's GDP are grappling with outbreaks.

Saying curbs that shut down cities and disrupt trade, a Chinese think tank issued a rare public disagreement Monday with the ruling Communist Party’s severe “zero COVID” policy.

Highlighting that the West is recovering economically, the Anbound Research Center said the Chinese government needs to focus on shoring up sinking growth.