SHANGHAI – The capital and largest city in Hebei Province in northern China on Thursday denied people access to curb the spread of the coronavirus as the country reported the largest increase in daily infections in more than five months.
Hebei was responsible for 51 of the 52 local cases reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday. This compared to 20 cases reported a day earlier in the province surrounding Beijing.
Authorities in Shijiazhuang, home to 11 million people, have launched massive test drives and banned gatherings to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
In addition to preventing people from leaving the city, people and vehicles from areas of the city that are considered high-risk were not allowed to leave their district, authorities said.
Hebei went into “war mode” on Tuesday, meaning investigation teams would be set up at the county, city and district levels to track down the close contacts of those who tested positive.
Chinese state television previously reported that Shijiazhuang had banned passengers from entering the central station. The city had previously required travelers to provide a negative nucleic acid COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours of boarding a train or plane in the province.
The total number of new COVID-19 cases for the entire mainland of China was 63, compared to 32 reported a day earlier, representing the largest increase in daily cases since 127 cases were reported on July 30.
The number of asymptomatic carriers infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease but does not yet develop symptoms has also increased from 64 a day earlier to 79.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China since the outbreak first began in Wuhan city in late 2019 is now 87,278, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
In the city of Dalian in Liaoning province in northeast China, which has reported local infections in recent days, residents of medium or high risk areas are not allowed to leave the city. Residents in other areas were told to refrain from unnecessary trips from Dalian.
Authorities in southern China’s Guangdong province late Wednesday reported a patient infected with a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus discovered in South Africa.
Some scientists are concerned that COVID-19 vaccines currently being rolled out may not protect against this variant due to certain mutations that have been observed.