Local governments in China have closed a number of highways to curb the spread of the Omicron variant, raising concerns about supply chain disruptions.
With market participants calling for consistent and flexible highway transport policies, the Ministry of Transport said in a Saturday (April 9) statement that local governments should not impose unreasonably strict restrictions and "one-size-fits-all" measures on highway transportation. Policies for transport permits in different regions should be consistent, and local governments are forbidden from arbitrarily closing highway rest areas, the statement said.
At least a dozen provincial-level regions have imposed restrictions on local highways, including closing entrances and exits, closing rest areas, and setting up Covid-19 testing sites, according to government announcements and data from Amap, a Chinese online map platform.
On Sunday, Yiwu, a city in east China's Zhejiang province and a foreign trade hub, announced it had closed six highway exits as part of its response to the outbreak. The city added three asymptomatic cases that day.
In Henan, a central province, the local government had closed 37 expressway rest areas as of last Thursday, local media reported. Shanghai, the country's largest city struggling to fight an outbreak, has seen large swathes of highways being closed.
Temporary traffic control measures will be implemented on some interchanges of Jinbin Expressway, Ningjing Expressway and Qinbin Expressway in Tianjin. At that time, citizens will not be able to transfer from the interchange to Jinbin Expressway when they pass through the Ningjing Expressway and Qinbin Expressway.