BEIJING (Reuters) – China plans to set strict COVID testing requirements during the lunar New Year holiday season, when tens of millions of people are expected to travel as it battles the worst wave of new infections since March 2020.
The commercial center of Shanghai on Thursday reported its first locally dispatched cases in two months, highlighting the increasing risk of the virus spreading elsewhere.
Millions of people in Hebei Province around Beijing and the northeastern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang have been trapped in recent weeks.
Authorities are asking people to stay home during the February holidays in an effort to prevent another devastating outbreak.
New curbs are also being adopted by local governments in areas that have not yet had major outbreaks, including one southwestern city that has banned access to foreign nationals.
A total of 144 new cases were reported on January 20, the National Health Commission said on Thursday it was in line with the total reported on January 14 and is the highest number of daily infections since March 1. It still remains a fraction of what China saw during the peak of the January-February 2020 outbreak.
Of the 126 new local infections, Heilongjiang accounted for 68, while Jilin reported 33. Hebei, which has had the largest increase in cases so far this month, reported 20 new cases and Beijing reported two cases.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed infections, rose to 113 from 58 a day earlier.
In a notice posted online, China’s National Health Commission said people returning to rural areas from other provinces during the lunar New Year period must deliver a negative COVID-19 test taken within seven days.
A majority of 280 million rural migrant workers in China usually travel to their villages at this time of year.
Those who work with imported cold chain products, among others, or among others workers in quarantine facilities, will also have to set up a test, even if they live in the same province, the notice reads.
Rural epidemic control, as well as infections spread by imported frozen goods, are blamed by officials as weak links partly responsible for the current outbreaks.
In an announcement from an NHC official during a Wednesday news conference, it was suggested that everyone returning home should take a test. The official media Xinhua then published an article urging officials to clarify details as soon as possible.
NEW STEPS
Although the latest increase in cases has mostly remained in the northeast, some authorities in other parts of China have introduced aggressive measures to reduce the possibility of developing a group.
The city of Ruili in the southwestern province of Yunnan, which is a popular tourist destination due to the warmer weather, blocked access for foreigners traveling overseas on Wednesday.
The city will also test all Chinese citizens entering the city of areas designated as medium or high risk for COVID-19 and that they should be quarantined for three weeks, two of which will be in central facilities.
Yunnan did not report any new local infections during the current wave, but Ruili had to quarantine some residents in September after discovering two imported infections from Myanmar.
Shanghai on Thursday reported three local COVID-19 cases, the first such infections since November 23. The city began mass tests of all hospital workers earlier Thursday after two such workers at various facilities this week produced ‘suspicious’ COVID-19 test results.
These individuals have not yet been officially declared confirmed cases.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on mainland China now stands at 88,701, while the death toll has remained unchanged at 4,635.
(Reporting by Jing Wang and Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Gabriel Crossley and Roxanne Liu in Beijing; Written by Se Young Lee; Edited by Jacqueline Wong, Gerry Doyle and Michael Perry)