Travel restrictions were yesterday placed on nearly half a million people near Beijing, as authorities rush to contain a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 with a mass test-and-trace effort and lockdowns in parts of the Chinese capital.
Another 21 cases of the virus were reported in the past 24 hours in Beijing, the Chinese National Health Commission said, taking the total number to 158 since a fresh cluster was detected last week after months of no confirmed local transmissions.
One case was also recorded in the neighboring city of Tianjin and two more in Hebei Province, which surrounds Beijing — prompting travel restrictions to be placed on Anxin County, home to about 460,000 people, banning most traffic going in and out of the area.
Photo: AFP
Essential service vehicles are allowed into Anxin, about 150km from Beijing, while regular and government vehicles can enter and leave only if they have permission, state media said.
Beijing is collecting about 400,000 samples a day for testing amid fears the new outbreak could trigger a second wave of infections in China, which had largely brought the contagion under control since its emerged in Wuhan late last year.
“I had wanted to get tested anyway, but my workplace said all mall staff must be tested,” a 25-year-old shop assistant said, as she lined up at the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing to be swabbed.
“I don’t really mind waiting, it’s for the greater good and the benefit of society,” she said.
A chef from a nearby restaurant, who gave his surname as Wang, said that he had been sent by his boss to get tested.
“Anyway, we haven’t had many customers over the past few days; people are scared to go out as much now,” Wang said.
The latest outbreak started in Beijing’s sprawling Xinfadi wholesale market, which supplies more than 70 percent of the city’s meat and vegetables.
The number of visitors to the market made the outbreak “hard to control,” Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention Deputy Director Pang Xinghuo (龐星火) told reporters on Wednesday.
To prevent the virus spreading beyond Beijing, officials have called on residents to stay in the city and forbidden those in areas considered “medium and high risk” from leaving.
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyou (吳尊友) yesterday said that the outbreak in the capital had peaked about Saturday last week, and had now been “brought under control.”
“That doesn’t mean there will be no patient report tomorrow,” he said. “This curve will continue for a period of time, and the number of cases will become less and less.”
About 30 residential compounds are under lockdown, but officials yesterday said the travel restrictions did not mean they were going to force the whole city to stay home.
China yesterday also reported four imported cases as Chinese nationals returned from abroad.
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