BEIJING: China has taken swift and effective steps to counter the COVID-19 outbreaks in Hainan province and the Tibet autonomous region to help curb the possible spillover of the epidemic to other areas.
The latest figures from Hainan province showed that from Aug 1 to noon on Wednesday, 2,454 people tested positive for the virus. The province faces high risk of transmission of infections among communities in the area. So far, more than 10,000 medical workers from 19 provinces and regions have been dispatched to Hainan to assist in its fight against the outbreak. Nearly 8,000 medical workers were also sent to the province help with nucleic acid testing, increasing the province’s capacity to process nucleic acid test tubes to 24 million per day.
Guo Yanhong, an official in the National Health Commission’s bureau of medical administration, said at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that the highly infectious Omicron subvariant BA.5 can easily result in sporadic outbreaks in a short period of time. Hainan is facing a complicated situation in dealing with the outbreak while the epidemic may be rapidly spreading.
She said that the nation has coordinated large numbers of medical workers and medical resources to improve the efficiency of nucleic acid testing because the “rapidity” of testing and processing is pivotal in accelerating quarantine and treatment.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
