More Chinese Cities in Lockdown as COVID-19 Outbreak Spreads

A volunteer disinfects the area as it snows during the COVID-19 lockdown in Changchun in northeast China's Jilin province on March 12, 2022. Chinatopix Via AP

China on March 13 placed two more cities under lockdown, including its southern business center of Shenzhen, amid a fresh spike of COVID-19 cases across the country fueled by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

The new restrictions came after the country’s leader Xi Jinping and health experts signaled the communist regime might switch to a softer COVID-19 response model.