BEIJING – It takes just 39 new cases of coronavirus for health authorities in China to lock up nearly 11 million people in the city of Shijiazhuang.
Health officials took no chances on Wednesday, shutting down the capital of industrial Hebei province and ordering a mass test drive.
Travel restrictions have been imposed in the rest of the region, which surrounds the capital of China and houses about 76 million people.
By Saturday, Mayor Ma Yujun told a news conference that it had only taken three days to complete the first round of mass tests in Shijiazhuang, with 354 people found positive for the virus. A second test round should start soon, he added.
Yan Xixin, a director of critical care at Hebei Medical University Second Hospital, said at the same news conference: “the risk of getting more infections is still there.”
This hard-and-fast approach is being reflected elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region to ward off the flare-up of the coronavirus – including in Japan, Thailand and Australia – to prevent measures to spread the virus in Europe and the United States. States almost slow to prevent.
Authorities put Hebei – known for its textile, steel and pharmaceutical industries – in a time of war on Tuesday. This meant that government-coordinated action could begin, investigation teams to locate contacts and medical supplies could be distributed.
For residents of the provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, travel from the city was forbidden and gatherings were forbidden. Schools were closed, while flights and trains were canceled and the main bus terminal was closed.
Late Friday, citizens were asked to stay home for at least seven days.
In the area, officials in the city of Nangong announced on the social platform WeChat that they would offer rewards of 500 Yuan ($ 77) for reports of someone refusing a Covid-19 test.
“People need to fully understand the need for this approach,” Shi Mo, a graduate student in Shijiazhuang, told NBC News.
Although it would require social and psychological adjustments, Shi compares the closure to the preparation ‘for a protracted war’.
“With Wuhan’s valuable experience in previous epidemic prevention, Shijiazhuang has a reference model,” he said. “We are all optimistic about the epidemic.”
The aggressive measures to control the outbreak are similar, though not as draconian, to those used by Chinese authorities to eradicate the virus when it appeared in the city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.
According to China’s National Health Commission – the only official source of information on infection rates in the country – the total number of coronavirus cases in China is more than 87,000 and the death toll has remained unchanged at 4,634 since May.
NBC News has not been able to independently verify the reported numbers, and the Chinese government has been criticized since its inception for its lack of openness. The country is also accused of mishandling the initial phase of the outbreak and silencing the whistleblowers.
However, a vaccination program is underway in Hebei, and the National Health Commission has said vaccines will be provided free of charge as soon as they are available to the general public.
Sun Xinyi, a teacher in Shijiazhuang, said the sudden closure in the city initially made people panic, but the rapid release of government information was very reassuring.
While slightly dissatisfied because he cannot order food deliveries, which have been suspended, Sun said the “rigorous and rapid testing in the city is indeed a good thing.”
Download the NBC News app for recent news and politics
Similar difficult approaches are being pursued in other countries.
In the Australian city of Brisbane of 2 million people, the city entered a three-day closure on Friday night after a single case of the more contagious coronavirus variant originating in Britain was identified.
“We are going to go hard and we will go early to do everything in our power to stop the spread of this virus,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told a news conference on Friday.
Japan also on Thursday declared a limited state of emergency in the capital Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures to halt the spread of the virus.
Residents were asked to stay home after 8pm as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga conceded that the measures might need to be extended to other parts of the country.
The difficult curbs come despite the fact that Japan was hit less severely by the pandemic than many other countries, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
Thailand also declared 28 provinces, including Bangkok, high-risk zones and asked people to work from home and not come together, as authorities on Monday confirmed a daily record of 745 new infections.
According to the Department of Disease Control, the country reported only 67 deaths overall, one of the lowest in Asia.
Dawn Liu reports from Beijing and Adela Suliman from London.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Ed Flanagan, Eric Baculinao and Will Xu contributed.