China’s COVID-19 outbreak is shifting to its south coast, with a flareup in Shenzhen triggering mass testing and a lockdown of some neighborhoods, while Macau — an hour’s drive away — is racing to stop its first outbreak in eight months.
The new cases come as China’s two most important cities, Beijing and Shanghai, look to be subduing the virus after months of strict curbs and repeated testing.
Shanghai yesterday reported nine local cases, while Beijing reported five.
Nationwide, China yesterday reported 34 new COVID-19 infections.
Yet new clusters continue to emerge, prompting action from local officials. Borders are increasingly under pressure, with Dandong — just across the river from North Korea — reporting six local cases.
In the city of Jilin to the northeast, there were 10 new infections among cold-chain workers.
In Shenzhen, which hosts companies such as iPhone maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co and Huawei Technologies Co, isolation orders were imposed for several residential compounds in the Futian and Luohu districts that border Hong Kong after each reported an asymptomatic infection.
The restrictions have not affected the companies’ operations, representatives said. The city recorded two local cases yesterday.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s outbreak continues to grow. It posted 1,186 new local infections on Monday.
Macau shut schools and non-essential businesses after the government found 36 infections as of Monday afternoon, although casinos remain open.
The territory reported another 47 infections yesterday.
Neighboring Zhuhai on mainland China locked down the area of its border crossing with Macau.
The shifting focus of China’s COVID-19 concerns underscores the Sisyphean task of stamping out a pathogen so infectious that the rest of the world has adjusted to living with it.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS