BEIJING (AP) – China faced coronavirus outbreaks in its north-eastern refrigerator on Tuesday, causing further blockages and travel bans ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year holiday.
The country reported another 118 cases on Tuesday, with 43 of them in Jilin province. Hebei Province, just outside Beijing, has another 35 cases, while neighboring Heilongjiang Province has reported 27 new cases.
Beijing, where some residential communities and outlying villages have been placed under blockade, has reported only one new case.
A fourth northern province, Liaoning, has also imposed quarantine and travel restrictions to prevent the virus from spreading, with some measures being imposed across the country to prevent new outbreaks during the February New Year holidays.
Authorities urged citizens not to travel, ordered the closure of schools a week earlier and conducted massive tests.
The capital of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang, has built a complex of prefabricated housing units to allow the quarantine of more than 3,000 people, while fighting to control several infections.
China has reported a total of 88,454 cases and 4,635 deaths since the coronavirus was first detected in downtown Wuhan in late 2019. China does not include people who tested positive but have no symptoms.
A multinational team of investigators from the World Health Organization is currently in quarantine in Wuhan for two weeks before starting field visits, hoping to get clues about the origins of the pandemic that has now killed more than 2 million people. of people.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– Travelers to New Zealand from most other countries will have to take negative coronavirus tests before leaving on January 25, officials said on Tuesday. New Zealand has recently imposed the travel rule in the US and the UK and is extending it to all other countries except Australia and a few Pacific Islands. Travelers returning from Antarctica are also exempt. COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealand has some of the strictest border measures in the world it needs to maintain its virus elimination strategy. There is currently no community spread of the virus in New Zealand, with all known infections among travelers who have been quarantined at the border. Most travelers must spend two weeks in quarantine upon arrival.