Just days before the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s top conference, COVID-19 has spread to more than a dozen provinces in China.

In a southern city, there were reports of people panic shopping, while in the northeast province Heilongjiang authorities forced the lockdown of residential neighborhoods.

The communist regime’s National Health Commission reported 93 locally transmitted cases in one day on Nov. 3, which is the highest this year. With the largest number of cases, Heihe City in Heilongjiang Province reported 35 cases, and 51 local communities have been shut down.

This comes as the ruling CCP’s conclave—the Sixth Plenary Session—is set to be held in Beijing on Nov. 8–11.

Heihe City held an epidemic press conference on Nov. 2, saying that after the COVID-19 outbreak on Oct. 27, traffic checkpoints were set up on eight roads in and out of the city to strictly control people and vehicles leaving the local area. All hotels used as quarantine sites will be stationed by the epidemic control team and will be under 24/7 lockdown.

For people quarantined at home, the authorities put seals on their doors or installed door sensors on their home and apartment doors to prevent them from going out. Since Oct. 27th, six nucleic acid tests for all residents in the city have been carried out.

Meanwhile, reports in the southern Changzhou City of Jiangsu Province said residents have been panic buying food and supplies, emptying out local supermarkets, after a report of local COVID-19 cases.

“People are mainly grabbing rice, cooking oil, instant noodles, and dried noodles,” said a staff member of a local supermarket.

The Epoch Times has obtained a video showing residents panic buying at a supermarket in Changzhou.

A shop clerk surnamed Liu (alias) at RT-Mart Supermarket in Wujin District of Changzhou City told the Chinese language Epoch Times that the panic buying began on the evening of the 2nd, and all the supermarkets were emptied out on the morning of Nov. 3. Liu said: “Now there is not much rice left in the supermarket, and the vegetable section has been emptied. The supermarket has placed an urgent (purchase) order, but it’s hard to tell if it will be supplied in time.”

On Nov. 3, Changzhou City officially reported 3 new locally transmitted cases. The staff of the Market Operation and Consumption Promotion Office of the Changzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce told local media that the panic buying in the city was mainly because of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the fear of food and supply shortage in the winter caused by a “Notice on Doing a Good Job in Maintaining Supply and Stabilizing Prices of Vegetables and Other Daily Necessities in the Market this Winter and Spring” issued by the Ministry of Commerce.

Since the Chinese communist regime has consistently covered up the real situation of the COVID-19 epidemic in China since the start of the outbreak in Wuhan, official statistics may not reflect the real number of cases and deaths.