A medical worker wearing a protective suit collects a neck swab from a local resident for the Covid-19 antigen rapid test at a temporary test center on January 6, 2021 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China.
Visual China Group | Getty Images
BEIJING – Chinese authorities are beginning to block parts of a neighboring province of Beijing after an increase in coronavirus cases.
The restrictions implemented in Hebei this week are some of the strictest since the spread of Covid-19 stopped in the country in March and come as new waves of coronavirus hit the US and Europe. China’s initial harsh response to the pandemic contributed to a 6.8% contraction in the economy in the first quarter.
Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province and located about three and a half hours by car southwest of Beijing, reported 50 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 67 asymptomatic cases for Wednesday. This brought the provincial total to 90 current confirmed cases and 144 asymptomatic cases.
The city stopped passengers from going to its station, suspended long-distance buses, closed schools and tightened control at the entrance to apartment complexes, while authorities blocked major highways in the province, according to state media.
Hebei Province began revealing several cases of coronavirus over the weekend, with the state media attributing some to the wedding attendees.
The new cases appear a few weeks after Beijing reported a handful of cases in close succession, leading to mass testing in certain districts of the nation’s capital.
Chinese authorities have expressed their ability to control the virus before the developed world and have blamed most sources since the spring of last year. The country is the only major economy expected to grow in 2020.
But late last year, officials began to express more concerns about the ongoing pandemic.
The rising number of coronavirus cases in the latest outbreak in Hebei indicates that the virus has been spreading for some time, Feng Zijian, deputy head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview with state media earlier this week. .
Researchers at the Disease Control Center said genome sequencing showed that Hebei strains are different from those found in other parts of China and have no connection to the UK strain, but shared some similarities to versions found in Russia.
Shijiazhuang is a city of about 11 million people and about a 10-hour drive north of Wuhan in Hubei Province, where Covid-19 first appeared in late 2019. The disease has become a global pandemic in several Monday and since then it has infected more than 87 million people worldwide and killed more than 1.8 million.
Hebei Province Health Commission sent thousands of medical staff to Shijiazhuang to help the city in need of medical care and mass tests. There are plans to send another 2,000 medical workers on Thursday.
Chinese authorities are encouraging people to stay away from the cities where they work during the upcoming monthly New Year’s holiday next month. Hundreds of millions of people traditionally return to their hometowns or travel during extended holidays, which fall in mid-February this year.