A volunteer receives daily necessities on behalf of residents under home confinement in the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
The file photo was provided by Tao Ming.
The Beijing Winter Olympics are just weeks away and China is battling multiple coronaviruses in half a dozen cities.
Beijing is doubling down on its "zero-tolerance" COVID-19 policy with the success of the Games and China's national dignity at stake.
More than 20 million people are locked in their homes in China.
Although it is only an hour from Beijing, the city of Tianjin is on high alert and has refrained from imposing a complete lockdown like that in the city of 14 million.
Instead, it has closed several residential communities and universities, canceled flights, and suspended train service. People leaving the city are required to take a negative COVID-19 test.
The city conducted mass testing for a second time on Wednesday and asked its 14 million residents to stay in their homes until they get a negative result.
The timing is particularly fraught because of the close proximity to Beijing. The outbreak was driven by the delta variant and happened during the Tokyo Olympics.
The disruptions for people in Tianjin are relatively light.
"You can go to the supermarkets and restaurants whenever you want, it's all fine," said Yu Xuan, who works at a university.
Wang Dacheng said his father who has trouble walking was able to get tested in their apartment.
"Tianjin people are pretty optimistic, everyone has been calm and collected," Wang said.
The measures are more strict in the west and in several cities in the north, leading to complaints that people were running out of food.
The policy of China began almost from the start of the epidemic, with the unprecedented step of shutting down 11 million people in the central city of Wuhan, where the first case of the H1N1 was detected.
It has been able to deal with local outbreaks through strict border controls and contact tracing. The measures have stopped the virus from spreading into a national outbreak. The rate of vaccination has gone up.
The task has become even more critical with the Olympics due to begin. The question is whether Beijing's safeguards will hold up against the omicron variant.
It is a critical juncture for China. "Can it stop omicron?" asked a professor of Chinese politics at the University of Chicago.
There were 76 domestically transmitted cases in jingnan province on Thursday. A total of 104,379 cases, 3,460 of them currently active, and 4,636 deaths have been reported by authorities.
The Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research's research director said that Beijing's Olympic bubble is even more strict than Tokyo's, which was mostly effective in stopping transmission.
The more contagious omicron variant has shown itself to be able to evade vaccines.
The Chinese population is protected only by vaccines and not from previous infections, according to a top Indian immunologist.
Bal said the Olympics would be the first trial. Omicron can easily travel to China.
There will be no contact between the inside and outside world.
The closed-loop system will allow officials, athletes, staff and journalists to travel between hotels and competition venues on specially designated vehicles. Chinese will have to stay in the bubble for three weeks.
Beijing's traffic police say anyone involved in a collision with a designated Winter Olympics vehicle should not come into contact with those on board and wait for a special team to handle the situation.
Kei Saito, a researcher at the University of Tokyo, said that if the measures are strictly enforced, they should be able to prevent the spread of the virus. It could be a different story outside.
Omicron is four times more transmissible than Delta. Saito said it's almost impossible to control the spread of omicron.
The organizers are determined that the Games will go on despite the controversy.
The leader of the ruling Communist Party in China said last week that the world is turning its eyes to China.
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The report was contributed to by an Associated Press researcher and an AP Science Writer.
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