Chinese city in partial lockdown, reopened schools shut after cluster infection

A city in northeastern China has imposed a partial lockdown, locking down its railway station and shutting down recently reopened schools after the emergence of a cluster infection of Covid-19, local officials said.

A city in northeastern China has imposed a partial lockdown, locking down its railway station and shutting down recently reopened schools after the emergence of a cluster infection of Covid-19, local officials said.

Students wearing face masks are seen inside a classroom during a government-organised media tour at a high school as more students returned to campus following the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, in Shanghai, China May 7, 2020. (Reuters file photo)

The cluster infection of six persons in Jilin city of around four million people has fuelled fears of a second wave of Covid-19 infections, forcing the local government to direct the closure of cinemas and indoor gyms.

The city is located in the eponymous province of Jilin, which borders Russia and North Korea.

Jilin city, the second-largest in Jilin province, also suspended train services from its main railway station Wednesday morning, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The provincial health commission said the six domestically transmitted cases in the city of Jilin were all close contacts of earlier confirmed cases in the city.

Vice Mayor Gai Dongping warned on Wednesday that there is a huge risk the coronavirus could spread further after reporting six new confirmed cases of Covid-19, Reuters reported.

A cluster of infections was reported in the suburb of Shulan, another city in the province over the weekend and Gai said Wednesday that the situation was “extremely severe and complicated” and “there is major risk of further spread”.

The new cluster case has sent local students back to online learning barely after they returned to their campuses on April 7.

By Tuesday, the province had reported a total of 114 locally transmitted confirmed cases, including one death and 92 casesthat had been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

A total of 367 close contacts of the locally transmitted confirmed cases in the province are now under medical observation.

The emergence of new cases in the Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged late last year, in recent days, after nearly five weeks without new infections, has prompted a campaign to test all 11 million residents in the city.

No new confirmed cases of the disease were reported in central China’s Hubei province, the province worst-hit in China, on Tuesday, the provincial health commission said Wednesday.

China has until today reported nearly 83000 cases and 4633 deaths from Covid-19.