China's Chengdu city extends COVID lockdown in most of its districts

Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, extended a lockdown in most of its districts on Thursday, hoping to stem further transmission of COVID-19 cases in the city of 21.2m people. The mega city, which has most recently battled with heat waves, power cuts and an earthquake, was locked down on Sept. 1 after detecting a number of cases, becoming the largest Chinese metropolis to be slapped with the curbs since Shanghai earlier this year. Since then, Chengdu has been reporting largely under 200 new locally transmitted infections per day, a small number compared to outbreaks in other parts of the world. It found 116 new cases for Sept. 7 versus 121 a day earlier, according to local authorities on Thursday. The lockdown was expected to be lifted on Sept. 7, but local government officials said late on Wednesday that there are still risks of the virus's spread in some areas.<br/>