BEIJING (AP) – Chinese authorities have asked residents of two cities south of Beijing to stay home for seven days as they try to eliminate a COVID-19 outbreak in which more than 300 people tested positive last week.
The cities of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai in Hebei Province restrict people to their communities and villages and have banned meetings, according to warnings posted on social media.
Hebei reported 14 more confirmed cases in the last 24-hour period, bringing the total ongoing outbreak to 137. 197 asymptomatic people were found to test positive. China does not include these asymptomatic cases in its confirmed count.
Beijing requires Hebei workers to show proof of employment in Beijing and a negative proof of COVID before entering the country’s capital. Chinese media reported a few hours of backups at entry points on Friday.
In a separate outbreak, three more cases were reported in northeastern Liaoning Province, bringing the total to 84 since the first cases appeared about three weeks ago. Beijing has had 31 cases during the same period, although there have been none in the last 24 hours.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– India will start its coronavirus vaccination action on January 16 to curb the pandemic in the second most populous country in the world. The Ministry of Health said on Saturday that priority will be given to health and front-line workers, who are estimated to be around 30 million. They will be followed by those over 50 and population groups under 50 with comorbidities, totaling about 270 million, according to the statement. Last week, India’s drug regulator issued an emergency clearance for the vaccine developed by Oxford University and UK-based drug maker AstraZeneca, and for another developed by the UK. Bharat Biotech Indian Company. AstraZeneca has hired the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, to manufacture 1 billion doses of its vaccine for developing countries, including India. The Ministry of Health said the two vaccines would be given in two doses. India is second in the world behind the United States with 10.4 million cases of coronavirus, including 150,798 deaths, according to the ministry.
– Vaccines against COVID-19 will be free in China, where more than 9 million doses have been given to date, health officials in Beijing said on Saturday. “Ordinary people will not have to spend a penny,” Zheng Zhongwei, a National Health Commission official, told a news conference. The announcement clarified the confusion of a nine-day-old press conference in which Zheng said it would be affordable and a senior senior official, Vice Minister Zeng Yixin, stepped in to say it would be free. The costs will be covered by a national health insurance fund and government funds. Nearly 7.4 million shots have been fired since the unit began on Dec. 15 to inoculate medical and transportation workers and other key groups before the lunar new year, a major holiday in mid-February. In previous months, more than 1.6 million shots had been fired. Zeng, the deputy minister, said that the specific time for the visit of a WHO expert team on the origins of the virus is being determined and that Chinese experts would be added to Wuhan, the city where they were detected by first time cases of the new coronavirus. in late 2019. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment earlier this week that the Chinese side had not finalized the necessary permits for the visit. Two team members who were already on the road had to go back. Tedros said in Geneva on Friday that he expects the dates to be set next week.
– Several regional governments in Japan have called for a declaration of a state of emergency like the one issued by the prime minister in the Tokyo area to curb the growing increase in coronavirus cases. The heads of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures in central Japan forwarded their request to Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of coronavirus measures, at a conference call on Saturday, according to the Osaka governor Hirofumi Yoshimura, to journalists. There was no immediate decision, but the group of government medical experts will study the situation, Yoshimura said. Japan’s state of emergency, which began Friday in Tokyo and near Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, is focused on calling for restaurants and bars to close at 8 p.m. It lasts a month, but can be extended. Gifu prefecture on Saturday announced its own state of emergency for an entire month. Other prefectures may follow the same. Japan has recently seen more than 7,000 new cases a day, and Tokyo’s daily cases exceed 2,000. Overall, Japan has confirmed more than 270,000 cases, including more than 3,900 deaths.
– Sri Lankan prison authorities have decided to release more than 100 prisoners serving prison sentences for their inability to pay fines, in an attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus in crowded facilities. Some 4,121 inmates and 129 prison officers have tested positive for the virus in five prisons in different parts of the island nation. Sri Lanka’s prisons are heavily congested, with more than 26,000 inmates in facilities with a total capacity of 10,000. On Saturday, prison authorities said about 150 inmates serving prison sentences because they could not pay the fines would be released under a special pardon announced by the government in order to alleviate congestion. Authorities have been releasing prisoners for various reasons since December. So far, 10,227 prisoners have been released. Sri Lanka has confirmed a total of 47,304 cases of coronavirus, including 225 deaths.