Letter from Beijing: Covid relapse threatens demand

China’s rebounding appetite for energy is being undermined by fresh lockdowns and quarantine measures

China’s worst Covid outbreak in two years is pushing its zero-tolerance policy to the limit, with implications for fuel and energy demand if Beijing cannot bring the latest surge under control quickly. The Omicron outbreak—China’s most serious since the initial crisis first erupted in Wuhan in early 2020—has spread to more than half of the country, with domestically transmitted, symptomatic cases detected in 20 of 31 provinces. The cumulative total of domestic cases so far this year has now exceeded 37,000, compared with 8,378 for all of 2021, with some 33,000 infections registered in March alone. The rising case numbers are a fraction of those for other major economies—the US reported 20,00