China has imposed its most widespread restrictions since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year, placing travel restrictions on about 23m people and putting some areas into lockdown after a sudden rise in cases.
Beijing reported that China’s total symptomatic cases had exceeded 100 on Wednesday, the biggest outbreak since last July. Ninety of the new infections were in Hebei province, next to Beijing.
Residents of Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Lanfang, three cities in the province, have been unable to leave since Tuesday. More than 10 local governments across the country, including in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, have also asked residents to suspend all but essential travel.