Over the weekend, China’s viral infections continued to grow, with hundreds more illnesses discovered in the province of Anhui, where two counties were already under lockdown. Following 385 instances on Saturday, the country recorded 380 incidences on Sunday. Infection rates have lately risen after remaining below 50 for the duration of the previous two weeks.
On Sunday, the site of the most current epidemic, Anhui, reported 287 cases. Northeastern Anhui’s Lingbi county, where neighbouring Si county conducted its sixth mass test on Sunday, went into lockdown on Friday afternoon. While China appears to have contained previous outbreaks in the big cities of Shanghai and Beijing, its Covid-Zero aim is being tested once more in the country’s eastern provinces.
On Sunday, Jiangsu province, which is adjacent to Shanghai, reported 56 cases. Three local incidents were recorded on Sunday in Shanghai. After six days of the city reporting no community illnesses, one was detected outside of government quarantine. Zhao Dandan, a vice director of Shanghai’s municipal health authority, cautioned during a press conference on Sunday that the number of Covid cases might rise further. On Sunday, there were no new instances in Beijing.
President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the importance of adhering to the Covid-Zero policy on Wednesday. According to him, relaxing Covid laws would imperil too many lives in the world’s most populous country, and China would rather temporarily halt its economic growth than jeopardise the security and health of its inhabitants. During a press conference on Sunday, Ao Ieong U, the secretary for social affairs and culture, stated that Macau, which reported its first two Covid deaths of the pandemic on Sunday, would not rule out shutting down the entire city if virus-control measures failed to stop transmission.
The city will conduct three more rounds of large-scale testing this week, and 650 workers from mainland China have already come to assist. During the current epidemic, which began on June 18, 784 cases have been confirmed. The newly appointed chief executive of the city of Hong Kong, John Lee, declared that there is no immediate need for a citywide, obligatory Covid testing programme, but he stressed the necessity of decreasing daily infections, which had reached their highest level since April.
Lee, who was sworn in by Xi on Friday, told TVB on Sunday that the government has to undertake more laboratory nucleic acid testing for Covid, but that for the time being, this will not be a mass, mandatory screening campaign. The CEO acknowledged the need to halt transmissions, but he did not specify if Covid Zero—the mainland Chinese plan of lockdowns and major testing campaigns to eradicate infections—would be the ultimate goal.
Post Your Comments