CHENGDU: COVID-19 outbreaks with unknown sources of infection are taking place in at least four Chinese cities – Dongning and Suifenhe in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, Turpan in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Chengdu in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province. To fight the virus, the cities have all rolled out massive nucleic acid testing programs and three have entered quasi-lockdown mode.
These sporadic cases are prompting China to enter a period of “epidemic normality,” experts said on Sunday, noting that quasi-lockdown mode and massive nucleic acid testing could be launched in more cities this winter.
A medical expert warned that if local health authorities fail to find the sources of infection in a timely way when sporadic cases emerge, an epidemic on a scale equivalent to the earlier one in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province is possible.
On Sunday, Suifenhe and Dongning — both of which border Russia — entered a “wartime” mode, with reports of three confirmed cases and one case, respectively. The province had reported a total of eight domestic infections as of press time. The same scenario was seen in Turpan, Xinjiang, which reported four new asymptomatic cases in one day on Sunday. Locals are not allowed to leave the city and neighborhoods are sealed off, the Global Times learned. Media reports said the travel ban will last one week. At the same time, Chengdu, a city also in “wartime” mode, reported one confirmed case on Sunday, that of a previous asymptomatic patient in quarantine. The city found a total of 12 positive cases during a citywide nucleic acid testing covering more than 2.29 million people as of Saturday afternoon.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
