China virus cases highest in nearly two years

BEIJING: The number of Covid-19 cases in China reached the highest since March 2020 on Monday, as Beijing races to stamp out the highly transmissible coronavirus variant just three weeks before hosting the Winter Olympics.

China, where the virus first emerged in late 2019, has stuck to a strict policy of targeting zero Covid cases even as the rest of the world has re-opened.

But its approach has come under sustained pressure in recent weeks with multiple clusters across the country just as the Games are about to get under way in Beijing.