Guangzhou reports 5,124 new local Covid-19 cases as of 0:00 November 15. This is double what it was from over the weekend. New coronavirus cases have surged in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities, official data showed last week.  Guangzhou is the global manufacturing hub and is becoming China's latest COVID-19 epicenter and testing the city's ability to avoid a Shanghai-style lockdown.

China has remained an international outlier on pandemic restrictions, persevering with Xi’s zero-Covid playbook of locking down buildings, suburbs or entire cities as well as mass testing, quarantine and electronic contact tracing. However, the speculation surged in recent weeks that Beijing was considering a more significant relaxation of the zero-Covid policy, supporting risk apptite in markets. Stocks in China, including Hong Kong, rallied for a second day on Monday, for instance, after the announcement of new measures to prop up the beleaguered property sector and the easing of the country's strict Covid-19 restrictions.