'One village, one policy': China keeps it local to battle COVID-19 wave

SHANGHAI: China is using localised tactics to battle a wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, an approach that avoids the sort of widespread shutdowns that devastated the economy last year but is also sowing uncertainty ahead of the Chinese New Year travel season. In the province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing and has seen hundreds of infections in the last two weeks, officials were told in a Monday (Jan 18) meeting to adhere to the principle of “one village, one policy” and draw up individual plans for each community. After keeping confirmed new COVID-19 infections to just a handful a day for…