BEIJING (AP) – Beijing has urged residents not to leave the city during the Lunar New Year holidays in February, applying new restrictions after several coronavirus infections last week.
Two domestic cases were reported on Friday, a convenience store worker and a Hewlett Packard Enterprise employee. Two other asymptomatic cases were discovered in Beijing earlier in the week.
Beijing conducts tests on a limited scale in the neighborhoods and workplaces where the cases were found.
To contain new outbreaks, the Beijing government canceled large meetings, such as sporting events and temple fairs. Applications are said to be reviewed strictly for important events. Places like cinemas, libraries and museums should operate at a capacity of 75%, the government said.
He also asked companies not to organize business trips outside the city and abroad.
The lunar new year is February 12th.
Separately, officials in the northeastern port city of Dalian said Friday they had tested more than 4.75 million people to detect the coronavirus after 24 confirmed infections this month.
Authorities have closed schools and all public spaces in five Dalian neighborhood divisions and only essential workers can leave their premises to go to work.
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region:
– The Japanese health ministry said on Saturday that it has confirmed a variant of the coronavirus that has spread to Britain in two residents in Tokyo, the first two cases of the new variant found outside Japanese airports. A man in his thirties tested positive for the new variant on Saturday after returning from Britain on December 16, the ministry said in a statement. A second patient is a woman in her twenties related to the man. The confirmation came a day after the ministry said it had detected the first cases of the variant in five returnees from Britain who tested positive when they arrived at Japanese airports between 18 and 21 December. Also on Saturday, Tokyo confirmed 949 new cases of coronavirus, a record high for the Japanese capital as the country struggles with an increase that extends across the country. The Tokyo metropolitan government said the additional cases bring the prefecture’s total to 55,851. Japan on Friday registered 3,823 cases for a national total of 213,547, with 3,155 dead, the health ministry said.
– South Korea has reported another 1,132 cases of coronavirus as the resurgence worsened during Christmas week, pressuring the government to implement stricter controls on social distancing. Figures for Saturday raised the number of cases in the country to 55,902, with 793 deaths. About 780 of the new cases came from the area of the big capital, where 26 million people lived, where health workers discovered a large group in a huge Seoul prison with more than 500 inmates and workers. Broadcasts in recent weeks have also been linked to hospitals, residences, nursing homes, churches, restaurants and army units. After months of complacency, government officials reinstated some distance restrictions in recent weeks after reaching them at their lowest level in October and are now reducing private meetings, closing ski resorts, restricting access. hotel occupancy and imposing fines on restaurants if they accept large groups. The government will hold a meeting on Sunday to determine whether to raise remote controls to the highest “Tier-3”, which could possibly close hundreds of thousands of non-essential businesses. Officials have resisted this action for weeks, saying it could trigger a new shock over an already weak economy.
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