It’s China’s longest pandemic lockdown, and probably its least well-known. But residents in the country’s dry and mountainous far west have just marked 100 days of living under some of the toughest, and most strictly enforced, "COVID zero" measures in the world.
Urumqi, the capital of the sprawling Xinjiang region, imposed its first major lockdown measures on Aug. 10. Despite initial success in bringing a flare-up back to single digits, an uptick in cases at the end of September prompted the entire region — roughly the same size as Alaska — to halt travel services early last month, essentially sealing itself off from the rest of China to contain virus spread.
"Most people wouldn’t have imagined the lockdown could continue for this long,” said a 21-year-old university student who spent months sealed in his home in the city of Yining, near the border with Kazakhstan, and has now spent nine days in a quarantine center before being allowed to leave the city. He asked not to be identified because discussions about Xinjiang and his ethnic group are sensitive.