HONG KONG – Chinese health authorities have stepped up efforts to stem a flare-up of coronavirus cases as the country faces its worst flare-up since the pandemic first erupted there early last year.
Cities in the northern provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin have built temporary quarantine facilities, imposed lockdown measures on millions of residents and rolled out tests across the city.
State media reports say that armies of volunteers dressed in protective gear have scattered across the affected areas and disinfected empty streets and shops.
On Wednesday, health officials from the city of Beijing said they had discovered the more contagious British variant of the virus in samples from two patients who tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday.
Since the current wave of cases surfaced in mid-December, health authorities have found about 1,500 symptomatic cases of Covid-19, the majority of which were local infections. China counts both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, but only includes the first in its official count.