China's central bank has cut one of its key interest rates for the second time in three months as the world's second-largest economy struggles to bounce back from the pandemic.

A majority of Korean semiconductor companies responded to a Bank of Korea (BOK) survey by saying that their exports to China were unlikely to fully recover.

China has reported 60,000 Covid-related deaths in just over a month, the first major death toll released since the country stopped its zero-Covid policy.

China's abrupt reversal of its Covid Zero policy pushed economic activity - its service sector in particular - to the slowest pace since February 2020, as the virus swept through major cities and prompted people to stay home and businesses to shut.

During Saturday night's protest in Shanghai - China's biggest city and a global financial hub in the east of the country - people were heard openly shouting slogans such as "Xi Jinping, step down" and "Communist party, step down."

Chinese cities from Wuhan in central China to Xining in the northwest are doubling down on COVID-19 curbs, sealing up buildings, locking down districts and throwing millions into distress in a scramble to halt widening outbreaks.

The lockdowns, the mass testing, the health code scanning, the quarantine, the travel restrictions are all here to stay for the foreseeable future.

The iPhone manufacturing hub of Zhengzhou locked down one of its most-populated districts to tame a virus flareup, with creeping restrictions throughout China underscoring the constant threat of disruption companies face while the country sticks to Covid Zero.

China is beset by severe economic problems. Growth has stalled, youth unemployment is at a record high, the housing market is collapsing, and companies are struggling with recurring supply chain headaches.

Volkswagen and Foxconn Technology Group are keeping their workers on-site in their factories in Chengdu after the Chinese metropolis locked down its 21 million residents to contain a Covid-19 outbreak.

Chengdu has become the latest Chinese city to be locked down as Beijing continues to pursue its controversial "zero-Covid" policy.

China has placed millions of its citizens under renewed lockdown after fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 as the government persists in its hardline policy on containing the virus in the face of more evidence that it is suffocating the economy.

Texas Instruments tumbled in late trading Tuesday after China's ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns crimped the company's sales and profit forecasts, with the restrictions idling factories and slowing shipments.

Shanghai reported a record number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases on Saturday and other areas across China tightened controls as the country kept up its "dynamic clearance" approach that aims to stamp out the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Shipments of some Apple products, as well as Dell and Lenovo laptops are likely to face delays if China's COVID-19 lockdowns persist, analysts say, as curbs force assemblers to shut down and closed-loop arrangements get harder to maintain.

Chinese automakers may have to halt production in May if shutdowns persist in the Shanghai area, said the chief executive officer of electric-vehicle firm Xpeng, a bleak assessment of supply-chain disruptions in the wake of Covid-19 lockdowns.

The manufacturing hub of Guangzhou closed itself to most arrivals Monday as China battles a major COVID-19 surge in its big eastern cities.

China's President Xi Jinping has praised his country's handling of the Covid pandemic, even as Shanghai reported record case numbers.

Initially, there had been separate measures for the eastern and western sides, but the whole city is now subject to indefinite restrictions.

Oil prices fell more than 5% early Monday as the Chinese city of Shanghai announced lockdown restrictions, triggering fears over weakened demand.

Mainland China reported over 1,000 new COVID-19 infections in dozens of cities, the highest daily count in about two years, with the Omicron variant forcing a northeastern city to go under lockdown and the financial hub Shanghai to close schools.

That sophisticated tracing system emerged from a relatively low-tech and crowd sourced development process.

Despite multiple COVID-19 resurgences, offline channel disruptions due to restrictions and sustained component shortages affecting OEMs, key SEA countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam) saw a 5% YoY growth in smartphone shipments in 2021, according to Counterpoint Research. At 96 million units, the 2021 shipments were the highest ever for a calendar year and more than the pre-pandemic levels.

The head of the World Health Organization on Monday dampened optimism that the pandemic will subside in omicron's wake, noting that global conditions are still ideal for the emergence of new variants.

Officials in Beijing are on high alert just weeks out from the start of the Winter Olympics, after China's first local outbreak of the Omicron variant spread from the northern port city of Tianjin to the central province of Henan.

It follows a similar lockdown in Xi'an, where 13 million have been confined to their homes since 23 December.

The Chinese city of Xian has reported an increase in daily Covid-19 infections and local companies have curtailed activity as the country's latest hotspot entered its third day of lockdown.

The world is in a "race against time" with the Omicron coronavirus variant, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, warning during a visit to Latvia that scientists and manufacturers will need weeks to fully understand the new variant.

Beijing is hunkering down after experiencing more Covid infections in the current cluster than at any time in the past 17 months, with officials asking for events and activities to be moved online.

Asia's renewed surge in Covid-19 infections is compounding supply-chain blockages across the world's biggest source of manufactured goods.

Taiwan's Foxconn and TSMC said on Monday they had reached deals to buy 10 million doses of Germany's BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, putting the total cost of the highly politicised deal at around $350 million.

Taiwan will allow Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Taiwan's Foxconn, and TSMC to negotiate on the government's behalf for COVID-19 vaccines, a spokesman said on Friday, but warned he couldn't guarantee success.

Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien, in an interview with Reuters late on Monday, said that he could not guarantee total safety for the city's tech firms, but that the government had rolled out rapid testing stations.

Chinese authorities in Guangdong province have cancelled flights and locked down communities in response to what is believed to be the first community outbreak of the Indian variant in China.

Stocks in Malaysia fell Monday trade as the government announced a nationwide "total lockdown" to curb the rapidly rising daily Covid-19 infections in the country.

Vietnam is asking Samsung Electronics and other foreign companies to find Covid-19 vaccines for their workers as the nation grapples with a virus surge, the government website reported.

Taiwanese Apple suppliers have been working to turn India into an alternative production base to China.

Taiwan - which has so far survived the pandemic almost unscathed - on Sunday reported 207 new infections.

Taiwan has entered the community transmission stage of COVID-19 following the emergence of six domestic cases of the disease that have unknown sources of infection, Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung said Tuesday.

India's health authorities warned about a fungal infection seen in some Covid-19 patients which can disfigure facial features and even kill, as the country continues to grapple with the world's fastest-growing coronavirus outbreak.