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Panic at Beijing’s border as county locked down, 7.69 million tested
Following the lockdown rules that were implemented in the first pandemic epicentre, the central Chinese centre of Wuhan, no non-residents will be allowed to enter communities or villages.
Neighbouring areas of Beijing could be put on high alert for fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 a day after China imposed a strict lockdown on a county with hundreds of thousands of people close to Beijing where a small surge in cases was linked to the new infections in the Capital city.
The set of restrictions were put on Anxin county in the Xiongan New Area in Hebei province, which borders Beijing, and logged 12 cases of Covid-19.
The county of Anxin lies around 150 kilometers south of Beijing and a group of traders from the county did business at the fresh food market in Beijing where the new infections emerged in June.
The new restrictions were being tightened on Monday as a leading respiratory expert made a grim warning.
“In the foreseeable future, Covid-19 cannot be eradicated and a regional outbreak is still possible,” Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert at Peking University First Hospital, told state media, adding that the possibility made it important for local governments to prepare for a long and protracted battle.
In Anxin, officials announced that “all villages, communities and buildings will be fully closed”.
Families will be permitted to send one person per household outside to purchase supplies once a day.
All vehicles from outside the county are banned from entering it.
As per the announcement, only essential workers are allowed to leave their homes,
Following the lockdown rules that were implemented in the first pandemic epicentre, the central Chinese centre of Wuhan, no non-residents will be allowed to enter communities or villages.
Violating the rules will attract police action.
“Hanging out with friends, gathering, and visiting others will not be allowed. Those who disobey management and refuse dissuasion will be dealt with by the public security organ according to the law,” a state media report said.
The new outbreak in Beijing began when the city reported its first case at Xinfadi market on June 11 and 318 people in the city of over 21 million have tested positive for the virus since then.
The capital has simultaneously ramped up its testing capacity.
As of Sunday noon, Beijing had collected 8.29 million patient samples for testing and completed 7.69 million tests, Zhang Qiang, an official from Beijing’s municipal committee, told a press conference.
“This means we have already tested all the people that need to be tested. We are also rolling out large scale screening to key regions and key populations (of the city) and improve our capability of testing,” said Zhang, adding that Beijing was also receiving medical support from other provinces.
The number of new cases in Beijing is small compared to the Covid-19 numbers that are emerging from the US, South America or India.
But it’s an indication that the coronavirus could reemerge in a locality, which didn’t report a single case for days – in Beijing’s case, the city didn’t have a domestically transmitted case for nearly two months.
As of Sunday, the overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 83,512, including 418 patients who were still being treated, with eight in severe conditions, the national health commission (NHC) said in its daily report on Monday.
Altogether 78,460 people had been discharged from hospitals after recovery and 4,634 people had died of the disease, the NHC said.
