SHANGHAI – The capital and largest city in northern China’s Hebei province banned people from leaving on Thursday in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, as the country has reported the largest increase in daily infections in more than five months.
Hebei accounted for 51 of the 52 local cases reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday. This was compared to 20 cases reported in the province, which surrounds Beijing, a day earlier.
Authorities in Shijiazhuang, home to 11 million people, have launched mass tests and banned rallies to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
In addition to banning people from leaving the city, people and vehicles in high-risk areas of the city are not allowed to leave their district, authorities said.
Hebei entered a “war mode” on Tuesday, which means that investigation teams will be set up at the provincial, city and district levels to track the close contacts of those who gave positive results.
Chinese state television earlier reported that Shijiazhuang banned passengers from entering the main station. The city previously asked passengers to report a negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test within 72 hours before boarding a train or plane in the province.
The total number of new COVID-19 cases for all of mainland China was 63, compared to 32 reported a day earlier, marking the largest increase in daily cases since 127 cases were reported on July 30.
The number of asymptomatic carriers, who were infected with the disease-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus but have not yet developed any symptoms, also rose to 79 from 64 the day before.
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in mainland China since the outbreak began in Wuhan at the end of 2019 now stands at 87,278, while the death toll has remained unchanged at 4,634.
In the city of Dalian in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, which has reported local infections in recent days, residents of medium- and high-risk areas have been banned from leaving the city. Residents in other areas were told to refrain from unnecessary travel in Dalian.
Authorities in southern China’s Guangdong province reported late Wednesday a patient infected with a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus found in South Africa.
Some scientists are concerned that ongoing COVID-19 vaccines may not be able to protect against this variant due to certain mutations that have been observed.