Chinese cities issue travel notices after Fujian COVID-19

BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Reuters) – China’s COVID-19 outbreak in Fujian province, which has reported 152 local cases in five days, has caused cities in other parts of the country to issue travel warnings before major festivities, although state media warns against imposing blanket sidewalks.

Travel warnings are ahead of the week-long National Day holiday that begins Oct. 1, a major tourist season, as well as shorter Mid-Autumn Festival holidays next week.

The last July-August outbreak, which saw strict restrictions on movement in some cities, affected the tourism, hospitality and transport sectors and significantly slowed the growth of retail sales. Read more

Although all new local cases in China since September 10 were reported only in the southeast of Fujian Province, the northeastern city of Jilin, as well as Maoming and Guangzhou in the south, have been advised to the people avoid non-essential travel outside their provinces. Shanxi and Heilongjiang provinces have also made similar advice.

The cities of Chifeng and Hohhot, in the northern autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, have advised residents to stay during the holidays, while Xian, in Shaanxi province, told residents to avoid leaving the city for reasons unnecessary.

But the state-run Global Times newspaper said Wednesday in an editorial that local officials should not casually defend general orders to stay in attitude or turn them into requirements.

“We need to gradually improve the precise efficiency of our zero-case dynamic route,” the newspaper said.

“We need to avoid a full-scale shutdown. We need to strive for early detection of every outbreak. We also need to make sure we can contain it more quickly so that it causes less damage to society.”

Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior economist at Capital Economics in China, said China’s services sector is expected to recover strongly from August, but efforts to contain the Fujian outbreak could alter the coming holidays, a key period for consumption.

He also warned of the risk of further disruptions in supply chains, as Fujian is a major shopping mall.

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The National Health Commission said Wednesday that 50 new cases of local transmission were reported during Sept. 14, compared to 59 infections a day earlier. They were all in Fujian.

This brings the total number of local infections in the three cities of Putian, Fujian, where the outbreak began, Xiamen and Quanzhou, to 152.

About 30,000 people traveled from Putian to other provinces from Aug. 26 to Sept. 10, state television reported Monday, citing health authorities’ estimates, which sparked contagion concerns.

Zeng Shidian, director of the Wenzhou Disease Control and Prevention Center in Zhejiang province north of Fujian, was quoted in local media as saying there is a “high” risk that the city will see some cases imported from Putian and d ‘other parts of Fujian to the movement of people and goods.

Wenzhou urges its residents not to travel to Fujian during the upcoming holidays. The city said Tuesday it will close covered leisure venues for half a month.

As of September 14, mainland China had registered 95,413 confirmed cases.

Reports by Ryan Woo, Roxanne Liu, Stella Qiu and Liangping Gao; Edited by Christian Schmollinger and Michael Perry

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