The country has seen nearly 8,000 cases of Chikungunya in less than a month, mostly in Foshan city in Guangdong province, prompting authorities to impose measures akin to the "zero Covid" policy that saw the Chinese government employ some of the strictest regulations during the pandemic.

China has become adept at coercive measures that many nations consider over-the-top since the deadly 2003 SARS outbreak. This time, patients are being forced to stay in hospital in Foshan for a minimum of one week and authorities briefly enforced a two-week home quarantine, which was dropped since the disease cannot be transmitted between people.

An outbreak of the chikungunya virus in China has prompted authorities to take preventive measures from mosquito nets and clouds of disinfectant, threatening fines for people who fail to disperse standing water and even deploying drones to hunt down insect breeding grounds.