Millions under new Covid lockdown as China keeps strict policy

A delivery worker wearing a face mask walks by a masked woman showing her health check QR codes to a security guard before entering the open air shopping centre in Beijing (Andy Wong/AP)

China has placed millions of its citizens under renewed lockdown following fresh outbreaks of Covid-19, authorities reported, as the government persists in its hard-line policy on containing the virus.

The measures affected about half of the six million residents of the port city of Dalian, along with an undisclosed number in Chengde and Shijiazhuang in Hebei province, both around three hours from the capital Beijing.