The northeastern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang was declared in quarantine on Thursday and its 11 million inhabitants have been banned from leaving the city after 117 cases of covid were detected: 50 confirmed and 67 asymptomatic, the local authorities.
Figures for new infections in this city – the capital of Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing – today raised the number of daily cases across China to a five-month high, with 52 local infections and 79 asymptomatic ones.
All people and vehicles in the city will not be able to leave and those in the urban district of Gaocheng, where the highest number of cases have been registered, will not be able to leave this area.
According to the official Global Times newspaper, at noon today (04.00 GMT) the city has collected 6.11 million samples as part of the campaign that began yesterday to conduct nucleic acid testing on all residents of the urbs.
2.4 MILLION TESTS ANALYZED IN ONE DAY
Of these, 2.4 million samples have been analyzed so far, including 11 new confirmed cases of covid.
The city’s international airport, located five kilometers from Gaocheng District’s high-risk district area, has canceled 84% of arrival flights and 81% of departure flights.
Train stations and the city’s long-distance bus station operations have also been temporarily closed.
Three Gaocheng officials, including the deputy governor and deputy director of the district emergency department, were fired on the grounds that they had failed to fulfill their obligations in anti-epidemic work, according to the Global Times.
Among the 50 new cases confirmed today, three patients had attended weddings in various parts of the city and one is a student at a local college.
The total number of infections recorded in the city in the last five days amounts to 83 confirmed and 148 asymptomatic cases.
Shijiazhuang, located about 300 kilometers south of Beijing, has suspended traffic on ten highways, which connect the city with the Chinese capital.
Hebei Province surrounds Beijing almost completely, except in a small section of the Beijing municipality bordering the port city of Tianjin.
NO CLASSES SINCE WEDNESDAY
Face-to-face classes in kindergartens and elementary and high schools have also been canceled since Wednesday, the state-run CCTV reported.
Of the 52 confirmed cases in childbirth published today by the country’s National Health Commission, 51 were located in Hebei.
Of these cases, 50 were detected in Shijiazhuang and another in Xingtai City, 123 kilometers away.
As for asymptomatic cases, Shijiazhuang added 67 cases today and Xingtai, 2.
So far, 90 confirmed cases are being treated in Hebei hospitals -5 of them, serious-, to which must be added 144 asymptomatic cases that are under observation, according to the state agency Xinhua.
According to the latest count released on Thursday, the total number of active infected in mainland China now stands at 485 people, 13 of whom are in serious condition.