A medical worker wearing a protective suit collects a throat swab from a local resident on January 6, 2021 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, for a rapid test of the antigen Covid-19.
Visual China Group | Getty Images
BEIJING – Chinese authorities begin locking up parts of Beijing province, Beijing, after an increase in coronavirus cases.
The restrictions implemented in Hebei this week are among the most severe since the spread of Covid-19 in the country stalled in March, and it comes as new waves of coronavirus hit the US and Europe. China’s initial difficult response to the pandemic contributed to a 6.8% contraction in the economy in the first quarter.
Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province and about a three-and-a-half-hour drive southwest of Beijing, reported 50 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus and 67 symptoms for Wednesday. This brought the provincial total to 90 currently confirmed cases and 144 asymptomatic cases.
The city prevented passengers from going to its train station, suspended long-distance buses, closed schools and tightened controls on access to apartments, while authorities, according to the media, blocked the major highways in the province.
Hebei Province began releasing a few cases of coronavirus this past weekend, while state media attributed some to troublemakers.
The new cases come weeks after Beijing reported a handful of cases in close succession, prompting mass tests in certain districts of the country’s capital.
Chinese authorities have demonstrated their ability to control the virus ahead of the developed world, blaming most foreign cases since last spring. The country is the only major economy expected to grow in 2020.
But late last year, officials began raising more concerns about the ongoing pandemic.
The increase in coronavirus cases in the latest outbreak in Hebei indicates that the virus has been spreading for some time, Feng Zijian, deputy head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview with state media earlier this week.
Researchers from the Disease Control Center said that genome sequences showed that the Hebei tribes differed from those in other parts of China and that they were not related to the tribe in the United Kingdom, but that they had similarities with the versions found in Russia. is.
Shijiazhuang is a city of about 11 million people and about ten hours drive north of Wuhan in Hubei Province, where Covid-19 first emerged at the end of 2019. The disease became a global pandemic within a few months and has since infected more than 87 million people. worldwide and killed more than 1.8 million.
The Hebei Province Health Commission on Wednesday sent 1,000 medical staff to Shijiazhuang to help the city with health needs and mass tests. It is planned to send another 2,000 medical workers on Thursday.
Chinese authorities are encouraging people to stay in the cities where they work next month during the upcoming lunar New Year holiday. Hundreds of millions of people traditionally return to their hometowns or travel during the long holidays, which take place in mid-February this year.