China hits the city of 11 million with severe restrictions, as more than 100 COVID cases have been discovered

Beijing Travel is limited to a city in northern China with 11 million people and schools were closed when authorities on Wednesday pulled over a group COVID-19 cases after more than 100 infections have been confirmed.

Ten major highways leading to the city of Shijiazhuang, about 200 kilometers south of Beijing, have been closed and a bus terminal has been closed in an effort to prevent the virus from spreading outside the city in Hebei Province.

According to the state-run Global Times newspaper in China, all train ticket sales from neighboring Hebei province to the capital are stopped, and Shijiazhuang’s long-distance bus station was closed when officials declared Hebei ‘wartime’ against the virus.

There were 117 cases in the city, including at least 63 more Wednesday. A total of 78 of the cases were asymptomatic, leading to mass tests in the affected area.

Unlike in most of the world, China has largely brought the virus under control through strict closures and travel restrictions. But there have been a series of local outbreaks over the past few weeks, leading to mass tests and targeted exclusions.

The village of Xiaoguozhuang within the city limits was classified as a ‘high risk’ district and closed off.

Health authorities said all 40,000 residents in the district had been tested for the virus.

State TV has shown villagers being tested by staff in full danger packs and protective gear, with roadblocks manned by police and medical workers.

All schools in Shijiazhuang are closed.

State broadcaster CCTV showed that teams of health workers were spraying disinfectant across streets and said an emergency team of medical workers had been sent to the city.

More than 400,000 residents of another nearby city, Nangong, were also tested, authorities said.

The Global Times quoted Feng Zijian, deputy head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying on state television on Tuesday that the COVID-19 strain that caused the Hebei cases was an imported one. most likely from Europe ‘, according to the Times.

According to Feng, tests are underway to confirm which variant of the disease originated in Hebei and where it came from. At the end of 2020, a new, highly contagious strain of the coronavirus appears in south-east England, which is now blamed for a large increase in infections in the UK, British officials said the variant is between 50% and 70% easier to transfer from one person to another.

South Africa has also identified a new strain of the disease, which is believed to be more contagious than those that have been spreading worldwide for a year, and which may have some resistance to current vaccination formulas rolled out.

Beijing is vaccinating millions ahead of the country’s new lunar New Year rush next month.