Covid-hit Chinese city in ‘wartime control mode’, 8,000 quarantined: Reports

Shulan, a city in northeast China’s Jilin province is under epidemic “wartime control mode” after an infected laundrywoman spread the virus to 11 others, as local authorities raised the epidemic risk level from low to medium on Friday.

At least 8000 residents of a city in northeastern China have been quarantined after cluster infections of Covid-19 mushroomed in residential communities in the past one week, state media reported.

By Friday, the province had reported a total of 121 locally transmitted confirmed cases, including one death and 92 who had been discharged from hospital after recovery, official news agency Xinhua reported. (AFP)

Shulan, a city in northeast China’s Jilin province is under epidemic “wartime control mode” after an infected laundrywoman spread the virus to 11 others, as local authorities raised the epidemic risk level from low to medium on Friday.

According to state media reports, four confirmed cases in Jilin city – under the jurisdiction of which Shulan falls – visited “public places such as supermarkets and restaurants and one has done cleaning work in seven places”.

By Friday, the province had reported a total of 121 locally transmitted confirmed cases, including one death and 92 who had been discharged from hospital after recovery, official news agency Xinhua reported.

The city has expanded the scope of nucleic acid testing to sub-close and general contacts of locally confirmed cases and asymptomatic cases.

“From Thursday to Friday, Jilin collected nucleic acid samples of 13,166 people and finished 6,195 tests,” the local health authority said.

The number of Covid-19 cases in China has plateaued but the new cluster infections have fuelled fears of a second wave of infections.

The number of confirmed cases in the mainland stands at 82,941 and the death toll at 4,633.

Mainland China reported eight new confirmed Covid-19 cases for May 15, up from four the previous day, national health commission (NHC) said in a statement on Saturday.

Meanwhile, wary residents of Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged late last year, continued to line up for mass nucleic acid testing on Saturday amid fears that exposure to crowded testing sites could trigger infections.

City authorities said all Wuhan residents will be tested for the coronavirus after cluster infections emerged for the first time since April 8 when the 76-day lockdown of the city was lifted.

Three million had been tested between April and now, and the remaining are being tested in a staggered manner.

“Some people have expressed worry in the (social media) groups about the tests, which require people to cluster, and whether there’s any infection risk,” a resident who asked not to be named told Reuters in Wuhan.

“But others rebutted those worries, saying such comments are not supportive of the government.”

The Reuters report said many people queuing up in the lines observed social distancing – with signs reminding them to do so – but just as many did not.

Many people observed social distancing, such as queuing one metre apart, and there were signs to remind them. But just as many did not. In some cases, volunteer workers were not insisting that they comply.

“At another open-air testing kiosk, where throat swabs were taken, yellow and black stickers on the ground kept people from converging. But at the back of the long queue, about 40 people gathered with no guidance from officials or volunteers”.