BEIJING: The Chinese cities of Shijiazhuang and Tonghua, as well as Daxing District of the national capital Beijing, started a new round of mass nucleic acid testing on Wednesday in an effort to contain the latest COVID-19 resurgence.
The mass testing was launched in the wake of a recent emergence of COVID-19 cases in these areas. On Tuesday, the city of Tonghua in the northeastern Jilin Province reported a total of 36 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, while Shijiazhuang in north China’s Hebei Province and Beijing’s Daxing District recorded 13 and six cases, respectively.
The Chinese mainland reported a total of 88 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday — 46 in Jilin, 19 in Hebei, 16 in the northeastern Heilongjiang Province and seven in Beijing.
Authorities in the affected areas have been making all-out efforts to stem the spread of the virus.
A total of 3,470 medical workers from across China were dispatched recently to Shijiazhuang to assist in the city’s fight against COVID-19. They have been working in fields including epidemiological investigation, nucleic acid sampling and testing, and the transportation and treatment of patients.
The city of Tonghua has suspended railway services, flights, long-distance buses and taxis, starting from 1 a.m. Wednesday, while private cars have been banned from entering or leaving the city.
Beijing’s Daxing District issued a notification on Wednesday banning all people in the district from leaving the capital.
Those who need to travel outside the city should obtain approval from local authorities and obtain a negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test result taken within three days prior to the departure, according to the leading group on epidemic prevention and control work in Daxing. – Agencies
