BEIJING (AP) – Beijing has urged residents not to leave the city during February’s Lunar New Year holidays, introducing new restrictions following several coronavirus infections last week.
Two domestic cases were reported Friday, a convenience store employee and a Hewlett Packard Enterprise employee. Earlier this week, two more asymptomatic cases were discovered in Beijing.
Beijing is conducting limited-scale testing in the neighborhoods and workplaces where the cases were found.
To contain new outbreaks, the Beijing government canceled large gatherings such as sporting events and temple fairs. It says applications will be strictly reviewed for major events. Locations such as cinemas, libraries and museums must run at 75% capacity, according to the government.
It also called on companies not to arrange business trips out of town and abroad.
Chinese New Year is February 12.
Separately, officials in the northeastern port city of Dalian said Friday they had tested more than 4.75 million people for the coronavirus after 24 confirmed infections this month.
Authorities have closed schools and all public spaces in five district divisions in Dalian, and only essential workers can leave their compound to go to work.
Elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region:
– The Japanese Ministry of Health said Saturday it has confirmed a variant of the coronavirus that has spread across Britain to two Tokyo residents – the first two cases of the new variant found outside Japanese airports. A man in his 30s tested positive for the new variant on Saturday after returning from Britain on Dec. 16, the ministry said in a statement. A second patient is a woman in her twenties who is related to the man. The confirmation comes a day after the ministry said it discovered the first cases of the variant in five returnees from Britain who tested positive when they arrived at Japanese airports between December 18 and December 21. Tokyo also confirmed 949 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, a record high for the Japanese capital, as the country faces a resurgence spreading across the country. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said the additional cases bring the prefectural total to 55,851. Japan had 3,823 new cases on Friday for a national total of 213,547, with 3,155 deaths, the health ministry said.
– South Korea has reported a further 1,132 cases of coronavirus as the resurgence deteriorated over Christmas week, putting pressure on the government to enforce stricter social remote controls. Saturday’s figures put the country’s caseload at 55,902 with 793 dead. About 780 of the new cases came from the greater capital area, home to 26 million people, where health workers discovered a large cluster in a massive Seoul prison with more than 500 inmates and workers. The broadcasts in recent weeks have also been linked to hospitals, nursing homes, churches, restaurants and military units. After months of complacency, government officials have restored some distance restrictions in recent weeks, having brought them to the lowest level in October and is now restricting private gatherings, closing ski resorts, restricting hotel occupancy, and imposing fines on restaurants if they accept large groups. The government will hold a meeting on Sunday to determine whether remote monitoring should be raised to the highest “Tier-3”, which could potentially shut down hundreds of thousands of non-essential businesses. Officials have opposed such a move for weeks, saying it could cause a further shock to an already weak economy.
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