Covid-19: Ruili, a border city between China and Myanmar, has multiple confirmed cases and blocks the city again

According to information released by the Yunnan Provincial Health Commission, of the 9 reported cases of people who tested positive, 6 have mild to normal conditions. One of them is of Myanmar nationality and five of Chinese nationality. They are between 22 and 22 years old. 42 years between.

There are also three asymptomatic infected people, all of Burmese nationality, aged between 24 and 28 years.

On March 31, Ruili City, Yunnan Province, held a press conference on the prevention and control of the new corona pneumonia epidemic. During the period, Gong Yunzun, secretary of the Ruili Municipal Party Committee, stated that the first positive case discovered this time came from a routine nucleic acid test and sampling for key populations.

He said that on the morning of March 28, the city of Ruili carried out routine nucleic acid testing and sampling of key populations in Jiegao Yucheng. At 2 a.m. on the 29th, the test reported that one case of Burmese personnel tested positive. for nucleic acid, and the review was positive for nucleic acid.

According to the local government, the city of Ruili immediately conducted nucleic acid testing and sampling for all members of the Guomen community, where Jie Gao Yucheng is located. At 24:00 hours on March 30, 26,000 nucleic acid samples were collected and a total of 9 positive samples were found.

The local government announced that it will carry out tests for all people in the urban area starting at 8 o’clock on March 31 and plans to complete the nucleic acid sampling before 24:00 on the same day.

In response to the epidemic, Ruili City continued to follow China’s previous practices and adopted extremely strict lockdown measures. Starting at 10:00 p.m. on March 20, the local area began to implement the control of traffic of vehicles and people leaving Ruili, in principle entry or exit was not allowed. After the nucleic acid testing of all employees is completed, it is decided whether to continue with traffic control based on the situation.

At the same time, all residents of the urban area of ​​Ruili must be isolated in their homes for a week.

According to a notice issued by the Ruili New Crown Pneumonia Epidemic Prevention and Control Work Headquarters, during the period of home isolation, except in supermarkets, pharmacies and farmers markets, all other commercial premises in the city will be closed .

During this period, each resident can arrange for a person to go out to buy their daily necessities by virtue of the travel certificate issued by the “network manager”.

At 8 o’clock on March 31, the city of Ruili has notified 317 individuals that they have conducted a preliminary investigation of close and sub-closed contacts, all of whom have been subjected to centralized isolation medical observation.

This is the second time the border city has been closed due to the epidemic since September last year.

The city of Ruili in Yunnan province is located on the southwestern border of China, adjacent to the port city of Muse in Myanmar. The border line is almost 170 kilometers long, including 105 kilometers of rivers and 65 kilometers of land.

Ruili Port is the port with the largest flow of people, vehicles and goods between the land ports of China and Myanmar. According to official data from China, in 2019, the number of people entering and leaving the port exceeded almost 17 million. At the Port of Muse on the Myanmar side, the trade volume in fiscal year 2017-18 was as high as 5.8 billion US dollars, which is 80% higher than the total trade volume of the other three. ports in Myanmar.

In September last year, two Burmese people smuggled into China across the China-Myanmar border and were subsequently diagnosed. The local government admitted at that time that the appearance of confirmed cases was a problem caused because “the network management unit did not respond in time.”

Yang Bianqiang, director of the Ruili City Public Security Bureau, said at the time that the border residents of China and Myanmar along the Ruili border line live across the border, have the same origin, They have the same language and communicate frequently. The border situation is complicated and the control task is arduous.

Unrest continues in Myanmar. Around 100 anti-coup protesters were reportedly killed on March 27, marking the day with the lowest casualties since the military seized Myanmar in February. So far, more than 500 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests in Myanmar.

In a press conference on March 31, the government of Yunnan Province and Ruili City stated that after the outbreak of the epidemic, border control has been comprehensively strengthened. A total of 506 checkpoints have been established on the city’s border and 3,902 people have invested in “preventing death.” The next step will be to crack down on those illegally crossing the border, as well as the organizers and hosts.