China has been hit with a spike of coronavirus cases as a new COVID-19 infection cluster spreads to five regions across the country.
The contagion link first emerged in a major port city in north-eastern China last week has spread to nine cities, including the Chinese capital Beijing, prompting officials to impose fresh restrictions to prevent a second wave of infections.
Fears of a fresh virus crisis have been fuelled as Xinjiang, home to the nation’s most Uighur ethnic minority, has also been battling a local COVID-19 outbreak since mid-July.
China has been hit with a spike of coronavirus cases as a new COVID-19 infection cluster spreads to five regions across the country. This photo taken on July 26 shows a health worker carrying out a coronavirus test on a resident in Dalian, Liaoning province in north-east China
The contagion link first emerged in a major port city in north-eastern China last week has spread to nine cities, including the Chinese capital Beijing, prompting officials to impose fresh restrictions to prevent a second wave of infections. Dalian has been carrying out mass testing of the port city’s residents after a cluser of coronavirus cases was discovered last week
China had largely brought the virus under control since it first emerged in the country late last year, through a series of strict lockdowns and travel restrictions. In this picture taken on Monday, people line up to undergo COVID-19 coronavirus tests at a testing centre in Dalian
China had largely brought the virus under control since it first emerged in the country late last year, through a series of strict lockdowns and travel restrictions.
But in recent months a number of small outbreaks have given cause for concern, with China reporting 68 new infections on Tuesday – the highest daily number since April.
Of those, 57 were in the north-western region of Xinjiang, where an outbreak has seen millions of residents tested and strict lockdowns in the regional capital Urumqi.
Its capital city, Urumqi of 3.5million, reported on July 16 its first COVID-19 infection – a 24-year-old female retail worker – in five months.
Experts still have not confirmed the origin of the recent Xinjiang cluster, which has infected 235 people to date.
In recent months a number of small outbreaks have given cause for concern, with China reporting 68 new infections on Tuesday – the highest daily number since April. A man wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus rides alone on a bus in Beijing on July 28
Residential communities in both Dalian and Urumqi have been placed under lockdown, with authorities declaring a ‘wartime mode’ to combat the virus. Pictured, Residents wait for groceries delivered to an entrance of a sealed residential compound in Dalian on July 23
Dalian authorities have also banned group celebratory dining activities and ordered customers to display a local ‘health code’ on their phones when entering restaurants. A health worker carries out a COVID-19 test at a makeshift testing centre in Dalian, Liaoning province
Six more cases were also reported in the industrial port city of Dalian, Liaoning province, where a new outbreak first emerged at a seafood processing plant last week. This brings the total number of new infections in Dalian to 44.
A fresh Beijing case reported Tuesday was also linked to an asymptomatic patient who had travelled from Dalian – the first new local case since a cluster in the capital was brought under control in early July.
The Chinese capital has recently declared a victory in containing a local COVID-19 outbreak linked to a seafood market.
A coronavirus cluster emerged at Beijing’s massive Xinfadi wholesale market in early June and infected a total of 335 people have been infected.
The local government marked the city as ‘low-risk’ on July 20 after reporting zero new cases for 14 consecutive days.
Beijing has sealed off the neighbourhood where the patient lives and begun mass testing local residents, according to the officials today.
Health authorities said the Dalian cluster had now spread to nine cities in five regions across the country, including as far away as the southeast coastal province of Fujian.
Fujian said the provincial capital Fuzhou would enter ‘wartime mode’ after it discovered an asymptomatic patient who had travelled from Dalian, 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) away.
The new measures mean increased scrutiny of travellers who enter the city from nationwide virus hotspots.
Twelve new asymptomatic cases were also recorded in Dalian on Tuesday. China counts asymptomatic cases separately.
The Chinese Super League is currently being played in the city, under strict conditions.
Local health officials in Dalian said Sunday that they would mass-test all six million residents within four days, and announced on Monday that samples had already been taken from 1.68million people.
A fresh Beijing case reported Tuesday was also linked to an asymptomatic patient who had travelled from Dalian – the first new local case since a cluster in the capital was brought under control in early July. People are pictured wearing face masks in Beijing on Tuesday
Local authorities have rolled out mass testing for all 6million residents in the major port city to stamp out a fresh COVID-19 outbreak. This photo taken on July 26 shows a health worker carrying out a coronavirus test in Dalian, in China’s north-eastern Liaoning province
Dalian authorities have also banned group celebratory dining activities and ordered customers to display a local ‘health code’ on their phones when entering restaurants.
Meanwhile, health authorities in Shenzhen announced that more than 3,000 locals had been tested as of Tuesday morning, after a Hong Kong truck driver who recently tested positive passed through the city close to the semi-autonomous financial hub.
Hong Kong initially had remarkable success in controlling the outbreak, but local infections have soared over the last month.
Across the mainland, 391 people are still hospitalised with COVID-19, and there have been 83,959 infections in total.
Head of China CDC gets injected with experimental coronavirus vaccine
A Beijing official has revealed that he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine.
‘I’m going to reveal something undercover: I am injected with one of the vaccines,’ Dr Gao Fu, the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an online conference on Sunday. ‘I hope it will work.’
China is developing at least eight vaccine candidates for COVID-19 as the country determines to become the first country in the world to roll out a successful vaccination for the disease.
The Chinese health chief has previously claimed that China’s first coronavirus vaccine could be ready by September.
Dr Gao Fu (pictured in this file photo on January 26), the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention says he has been injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit
Dr Gao Fu Sunday revealed the news during a webinar hosted by Alibaba Health, an arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant, and Cell Press, an American publisher of scientific journals.
He also said that taking the jab himself was an attempt to persuade the public to follow suit when one is approved.
Gao did not say when or how he took the vaccine candidate, leaving it unclear whether he was injected as part of a government-approved human trial.
The claim underscores the enormous stakes as China competes with US and British companies to be the first with a vaccine to help end the pandemic – a feat that would be both a scientific and political triumph.