A medical employee in protecting swimsuit collects a swab from a resident at a free nucleic acid testing web site following new circumstances of the coronavirus illness (COVID-19), in Lanzhou’s Chengguan district, Gansu province, China October 20, 2021. cnsphoto by way of REUTERS
BEIJING, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Elements of northern China are bracing for extra COVID-19 curbs as a wave of circumstances raises considerations of a broader outbreak, with three areas implementing lockdowns, some colleges halting lessons, and an aerospace agency delaying work on a rocket mission.
China reported 13 new domestically transmitted circumstances for Oct. 20, bringing the entire quantity since Oct. 16 to 42, information from the Nationwide Well being Fee (NHC) confirmed on Thursday.
Alxa Left Banner, a small administrative division within the Chinese language area of Inside Mongolia, mentioned late on Wednesday it had imposed a lockdown and would take a look at its inhabitants of 180,000, after the town of Erenhot and a division referred to as Ejina Banner barred individuals from leaving amid native outbreaks.
The lockdowns are small in contrast with the one seen throughout early 2020 within the a lot bigger, denser metropolis of Wuhan.
The most recent cluster, involving largely northern and northwestern China, has reached the capital, Beijing, and the neighbouring Hebei province, the place officers pledged stringent measures in opposition to the virus as they stepped up preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics Video games in February.
The one native case reported in Beijing on Oct. 19 was the primary since August.
In Hebei, the town of Xingtai, a few six-hour drive from Zhangjiakou metropolis, which is able to co-host the Video games with Beijing, reported two native asymptomatic infections, which China classifies individually from confirmed circumstances, for Oct. 20.
In northwestern Gansu province, the place 9 native confirmed circumstances have been reported previously week, main and excessive colleges within the provincial capital of Lanzhou, in addition to in a single county in Jiuquan metropolis, have suspended offline lessons.
Jiuquan, the place the state steadily launches rockets, has but to detect any native circumstances, however authorities have halted cultural occasions comparable to exhibitions.
Expace, a state-backed aerospace agency, mentioned on Tuesday that it had postponed work on a mission involving the Kuaizhou 1-A rocket in Jiuquan as a part of epidemic management. Staffers had been required to enter a “semi-lockdown” mode and keep away from contact with the skin.
Officers haven’t disclosed how individuals grew to become contaminated within the newest circumstances.
Most of the contaminated had travelled throughout provinces earlier than their diagnoses, prompting a flurry of cities to trace and take a look at their shut contacts.
Reporting by Ryan Woo, Roxanne Liu and Liangping Gao; Enhancing by Christian Schmollinger and Gerry Doyle
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Discussion about this post