Officials are taking steps to prevent incidents amid concerns about travel for next month’s New Year’s holiday.
Mainland China reported the biggest daily rise in COVID-19 cases in more than five months, the country’s national health authority said Monday, as new diseases in the Hebei area around Beijing continued to rise and spread. ‘spread issues elsewhere.
Hebei reported 82 of the 85 new local diseases reported on Jan. 10, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement, with the Liaoning Department also reporting two new cases and Beijing reporting one new case. . The country also saw 18 new diseases imported from abroad.
The total number of new COVID-19 cases was 103, the highest since 127 cases were reported on 30 July.
Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, who is in Beijing, said the uprising was the “worst thing” in months and was causing concern among officials as an important national holiday was coming closer. near.
“We are just a few months away from the Lunar New Year where hundreds of millions of people are expected to travel across the country to spend the week-long holiday with their family to they are desperate to get those issues, this is a revolution, brought under control before then, ”she said.
460+ new # corona-virus issues reported in #China in the past week. The cities of Shijiazhuang & Xingtai, both just a few hours away from Beijing, are under lock and key. Authorities say the 2nd round of major testing there will begin soon and that necessary staff will be tested every day.
– Katrina Yu (@Katmyu) January 11, 2021
While the number of reported new cases is a small part of what the country saw at the height of the uprising in early 2020, it has been criticized that local authorities have moved too slowly to deal with it. to the uprising, Yu said.
Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei, is now under lock and key, with people and vehicles banned from leaving the city and public transport suspended. A second wave of major tests has begun and all face – to – face tests from bus drivers to medical staff must have daily tests, she said.
Last week, three officers in Hebei were fired for deficiencies in their handling of the uprising.
All cases were reconnected to a patient who was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Jan. 2, but it is unclear how the outbreak first began.
Wangkui county, under the command of Suihua city in Heilongjiang province, reported eight new asymptomatic cases and moved Monday to shut down all unnecessary businesses, stopped people from leaving the city and stopped it. all unnecessary traffic, state television also reported.
One family in the county can leave one person from their home once every three days to buy things, the report said.
The Hebei highway authority said Monday that several sections of major roads in the province have been closed for the COVID-19 ban and vehicles registered to Shijiazhuang and Xingtai will be asked to return. The latter city has also reported cases of COVID-19 in the last few days.
The NHC reported 76 asymptomatic patients for mainland China as a whole, up from 27 days earlier. Although these people are known to have the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the infection, China does not count them as “confirmed” cases because they have no symptoms.
The total number of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in mainland China is now at 87,536, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.