China bans residents from leaving Xinjiang, just weeks after its last Covid lockdown

Workers at a vineyard in Korla in Xinjiang's Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture undergo Covid testing on August 9. China has banned residents from leaving Xinjiang over a Covid-19 outbreak - just weeks after the far-western region began relaxing restrictions from a stringent extended lockdown, fueling public frustration among those scarred by food shortages and plunging incomes. China is the world's last major economy still enforcing strict zero-Covid measures, which aim to stamp out chains of transmission through border restrictions, mass testing, extensive quarantines, and uncompromising snap lockdowns. The news of the region's shuttered borders dismayed many residents for whom the pain of the last lockdown is still fresh. Many parts of Xinjiang were placed under strict lockdown from August to September, with people in affected areas banned from leaving their homes - causing severe shortages of food, medicine and other basic necessities. By early September, Xinjiang residents - from Urumqi to the cities of Yining and Korla - had taken to social media en masse to cry for help, drawing attention to the pain of the extended lockdowns. This limited reopening only lasted seven days before the regional lockdown was announced - dashing any hope of him leaving Xinjiang.