Covid lockdown again in China

Beijing: China locked down a county that has seen the most Covid-19 cases in the country's latest delta outbreak, as an initial flareup in the country's northwest quickly spirals into a nationwide surge.

Ejin, a county in China's Inner Mongolia region, asked its 35,700 residents to stay home from Monday and warned of civil and criminal liabilities should anyone disobey the order, according to a local government statement.

The small county bordering Mongolia is the current outbreak's hotspot, home to nearly one-third of the more than 150 infections found over the past week in the mainland.

The lockdown comes a day after a warning from National Health Commission officials that the outbreak would continue to worsen after spreading to 11 provinces in about a week. China reported 38 Covid infections on Monday, half of which were found in Inner Mongolia.