With tourists stranded at vacation spots, major cities under lockdown and whole train-loads of passengers placed in quarantine, Chinese authorities have enlisted vast swaths of the population to track down and smother the country's third outbreak of the delta variant this year.
But not in China, which remains steadfastly committed to eliminating the virus while most of the world shifts toward mitigation. On Thursday, authorities halted two high-speed trains traveling to Beijing because of a single passenger on each who was deemed a close contact of a confirmed case. Despite no one on board being confirmed as a carrier, all of the nearly 350 passengers were put in centralized quarantine.
Although the Chinese authorities have largely been successful in securing public buy-in for the elimination approach, it is not always popular in places where lockdowns have repeatedly disrupted daily life, such as Ruili, a border town in southwestern Yunnan that has endured five lockdowns this year.
Some of the strictest measures have been implemented in Beijing, which is preparing to host a meeting of top Chinese Communist Party leaders as well as the Winter Olympics in February. In areas of the capital deemed to be at risk, public transportation has been curtailed and tourism halted.