CHINA has locked down multiple cities as it battles its biggest Covid surge since the start of the pandemic.

Much of the current outbreak is being driven by the variant commonly known as "stealth omicron," or the BA.2 lineage of the omicron variant which are driving sharp rises of Covid cases in Scotland.

Scotland's chief medical officer Professor Sir Gregor Smith said about 85% of cases in Scotland were thought to be the BA.2 variant.

On Friday there were 13,220 new cases of Covid reported - nearly two-and-a-half times more than on the same day two weeks ago.

There were 1,805 people in hospital in Scotland with Covid - the highest number for a year and up 142 on the previous day. There were also 27 in intensive care, up four in a day, and more than double the 11 that were in ICUs two weeks ago.

The World Health Organisation has said BA.2 is more transmissible than the original BA.1 Omicron strain, which emerged in Scotland in December.

Denmark's top infectious disease authority, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), estimated that the strain is around one and a half times more transmissible than the original version of Omicron - BA.1 - which exploded in southern Africa at the end of last year.

Scotland's remaining Covid restrictions, including the end of the legal obligation to masks inside public buildings, are due to be lifted next Monday.

In China, officials said 2,125 cases were reported across 58 cities in 19 of 31 mainland provinces, marking the fourth consecutive day the nation had reported more than 1,000 daily local cases. More than 10,000 cases have been reported since the latest outbreak began in early March.

Throughout the pandemic, China has adhered to a strict zero-Covid policy that aims to stamp out all outbreaks and chains of transmission using a combination of border controls, mass testing, quarantine procedures and lockdowns.

The Herald:

The northeastern Chinese province of Jilin imposed a rare travel ban on its population as the region's Omicron outbreak helped drive China's tally of new local Covid cases so far this year higher than any recorded in 2021.

Nearly half of the total infections in the latest outbreak have been reported in northeastern Jilin province, which is scrambling to rein in the fast spread of the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant of the coronavirus.

There have been 4,605 cases since March 1, when the first clusters of cases in Jilin's border city Yanbian were identified, according to the provincial government.

Jilin announced that all its 24.1 million residents were prohibited from travelling out of or into the province, or across different areas within the province.

Those who must travel must notify the local police, and will be subject to a quarantine requirement upon returning, according to a provincial government statement.

Authorities are rushing to build four new hospital and quarantine facilities with 16,000 beds to separate those infected with coronavirus and their close contacts from the rest of the population. The construction has recalled memories of similar steps taken at the start of the pandemic in Wuhan in 2020, and a live webcam is streaming progress online.

In the past week, new Covid cases have been reported in Beijing and the financial hub Shanghai - China's most populous cities - as well as in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang along the coast.

Two major Chinese cities - northeastern industrial hub Changchun and southern economic hub Shenzhen - are under lockdown, with more than 26 million residents forbidden from leaving their homes.

Apple supplier Foxconn and dozens of other factories in Shenzhen have stopped production after authorities imposed a lockdown on the city of 17.5m.

In the UK, the Office for National Statistics estimated on Friday that Scotland had the highest rate of Covid infections since sampling began in autumn 2020.

One in 18, almost 300,000 people, had Covid in the previous week. The estimated infection levels had risen for six consecutive weeks.

Figures released last Wednesday showed the number of people in Scottish hospitals with Covid was at its highest for 13 months.

Scotland's chief medical officer has said that ministers will be advised to take a “cautious approach” to lifting the remaining coronavirus restrictions in Scotland.

Mr Smith said he is “keeping a close eye on” rising infection levels and hospital cases.

He said there is some early evidence the hospital admission rate is beginning to “top out”.

Last week Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the UK government had "no concerns at all" about sub-variants.

He said Omicron had been the last variant to be considered of concern but that the country had "successfully navigated" it, but he said the government continued to monitor the situation "very carefully".