A medical officer wearing a protective suit collects a throat swab from a local resident in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, on January 6, 2021, for a rapid test for Covid-19 antigen at a temporary testing center.
Visual China Group | Getty Images
BEIJING – Chinese authorities are beginning to detain parts of a neighboring province to Beijing after a spike in coronavirus cases.
The restrictions put in place in Hebei this week are some of the strictest since the spread of Covid-19 in the country came to a halt in March, and come as new waves of the coronavirus hit the US and Europe. China’s initial harsh response to the pandemic contributed to a 6.8% contraction of the economy in the first quarter.
Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province and located about three and a half hours’ drive southwest of Beijing, reported 50 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 67 asymptomatic cases on Wednesday. It brought the provincial total to 90 current confirmed cases and 144 asymptomatic cases.
The city has stopped passengers from going to the train station, suspended long-distance buses, closed schools, and enforced tighter controls on entering apartment complexes, while authorities have blocked major highways in the province, according to state media.
Hebei Province began to disclose some cases of coronavirus over the weekend, with state media attributing some to wedding attendees.
The new cases come a few weeks after Beijing reported a handful of cases in a row, prompting massive testing in certain districts of the country’s capital.
Chinese authorities have touted their ability to control the virus ahead of the developed world, blaming most of the cases on foreign sources since last spring. The country is the only major economy expected to grow by 2020.
But late last year, officials began to worry more about the ongoing pandemic.
The increase in coronavirus cases during the latest Hebei outbreak indicates that the virus has been spreading for a while, said Feng Zijian, deputy chief of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in an interview with state media earlier this week. .
Researchers at the Disease Control Center said genome sequencing showed that the Hebei strains were different from those in other parts of China and unrelated to the strain in the UK, but shared some similarities with versions found in Russia.
Shijiazhuang is a city of about 11 million people and about a 10-hour drive north of Wuhan in Hubei province, where Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019. The disease turned into a global pandemic within months and has since hit more than 87 million infected people. worldwide and has killed more than 1.8 million people.
Hebei Province’s health commission sent 1,000 medical personnel to Shijiazhuang on Wednesday to help the city with health care needs and massive testing. There are plans to send another 2,000 medical workers on Thursday.
Chinese authorities are encouraging people to stay in the cities where they work during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday next month. Hundreds of millions of people traditionally return to their hometowns or travel during the extended vacation, which falls in mid-February this year.