Beijing shut dozens of metro stations and bus routes on Wednesday in its campaign to stop the spread of COVID-19 and avoid the fate of Shanghai, where millions of residents have been under strict lockdown for more than a month.

New evidence has emerged that China's uncompromising battle against the coronavirus, believed to have emerged in a market in the city of Wuhan in late 2019, is undermining its growth and hurting the international companies invested there.

Late on Tuesday, another city announced work-from-home and other COVID-19 curbs for the coming week. The central city of Zhengzhou, home to 12.6 million people and a factory of Apple's iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, joins dozens of big cities in full or partial lockdown.