Wuhan, China, where the first Covid outbreak was reported, is under partial lockdown

Wuhan closed down one of its central districts after Covid cases were discovered, as China maintains a zero tolerance approach to the virus nearly three years after it first appeared in the city.

A spokeswoman for the area’s CDC told by phone that the 900,000 residents of Hanyang district were told to stay in their homes beginning Wednesday. Another official from Hanyang’s health bureau stated that the lockdown would last until Sunday and that all non-essential businesses had been instructed to close. Supermarkets and pharmacies will continue to operate normally.

Photos on Chinese social media appeared to show barriers erected in the district, ostensibly to keep people from fleeing as movement restrictions are implemented.

On Tuesday, Wuhan recorded 18 Covid cases in the community. While it’s a negligible number in other parts of the world where people have adapted to living with the virus, it’s a significant number in China, where authorities are still trying to eradicate outbreaks.

The Covid Zero policy, which originated in Wuhan during the early days of the pandemic, employs lockdowns, mass testing, and travel restrictions to limit the virus’s spread. In China, the approach is causing widespread social and economic disruption.

After the virus was eradicated by April 2020, Wuhan experienced a long period of no cases during which life in the world’s first Covid lockdown returned to normal. This spell ended in July of this year, when officials sealed off the Jiangxia district on Wuhan’s outskirts, which is home to nearly 1 million people.