BEIJING/SHANGHAI, May 4 (Reuters) - The Chinese capital Beijing shut dozens of metro stations and bus routes on Wednesday in its campaign to stop the spread of COVID-19 and avoid the fate of Shanghai where millions of residents have been under strict lockdown for more than a month.

New evidence has emerged that China's uncompromising battle against the coronavirus, believed to have emerged in a market in the city of Wuhan in late 2019, is undermining its growth and hurting the international companies invested there.

Late on Tuesday, another city announced work-from-home and other COVID curbs for the coming week. The central city of Zhengzhou, home to 12.6 million people and a factory of Apple's iPhone manufacturer Foxconn joins dozens of big cities in full or partial lockdown.

The capital shut more than 40 subway stations, about a tenth of the network, and 158 bus routes, service providers said. Most of the suspended stations and routes are in the Chaoyang district, the epicentre of Beijing's outbreak.

With dozens of new cases a day, Beijing is trying to avoid a full lockdown, as Shanghai also did initially, instead hoping that mass testing will find and isolate the virus before it can spread.

The city of 22 million people has closed schools as well as some businesses and residential buildings in high-risk areas, and many people are stocking up in case a full lockdown does come.

Twelve out of 16 Beijing districts were conducting the second of three rounds of tests this week, having done three mass screenings last week.