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BEIJING: China plans to impose strict COVID-19 testing requirements during the Chinese New Year holiday season, when tens of millions of people are expected to travel, as it battles the worst wave of new infections since March last year.
The Shanghai Mall reported its first cases of local transmission in two months on Thursday (January 21), underscoring the growing risk of the virus spreading elsewhere.
Millions of people in the Hebei province surrounding Beijing and the northeast provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang have been blocked in recent weeks.
Authorities are asking people to stay home during the February holiday season in their effort to prevent another debilitating outbreak.
Local governments are also adopting new restrictions in areas that have yet to experience major outbreaks, including a southwestern city that has banned foreigners from abroad.
A total of 144 new cases were reported on Wednesday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said Thursday, which matches the total reported on Jan.14 and marks the highest number of daily infections since March 1, 2020.
However, this is still a fraction of what China saw during the outbreak’s height from January to February last year.
Of the 126 new local infections, Heilongjiang accounted for 68 while Jilin reported 33. Hebei, which had so far seen the largest increase in cases this month, reported 20 new cases, and Beijing reported two cases.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed infections, rose to 113 from 58 a day earlier.
In a notice posted online, China’s National Health Commission said that people returning to rural areas from other provinces during the Chinese New Year period would have to produce a negative COVID-19 test taken within seven days.
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Most of China’s 280 million rural migrant workers travel to their villages at this time of year.
Those working with imported cold chain products, or quarantine facility workers, among other groups, would also have to produce a test, even if they stayed in the same province, the notice said.
Control of the epidemic in rural areas, as well as infections that spread through imported frozen products, have been blamed by officials as weak links partially responsible for the current outbreaks.
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An announcement by an NHC official during a news conference Wednesday suggested that everyone returning home would have to take a test. The official Xinhua outlet later published an article urging officials to clarify the details “as soon as possible.”
Employees stand near New Year decorations at a beauty salon in Beijing on January 8, 2021. (Photo: AP / Ng Han Guan)
NEW STEPS
Although the latest increase in cases has been mostly in the northeast, some authorities in other parts of China have implemented aggressive measures in an attempt to eliminate the possibility of a cluster developing.
Ruili city in southwestern Yunnan province, which is a popular tourist spot due to its warmer weather, blocked entry to foreigners traveling from abroad on Wednesday.
The city will also screen all Chinese citizens entering the city from areas designated as medium or high risk for COVID-19 and require them to be quarantined for three weeks, two of which will be in centralized facilities.
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Yunnan has reported no new local infections during the current wave, but Ruili was forced to quarantine some residents in September after discovering two infections imported from Myanmar.
Shanghai reported three local cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, its first such infections since November 23. The city released massive testing of all hospital workers early Thursday after two of those workers at different facilities returned “suspicious” COVID-19 test results this week.
These people have not yet been officially declared as confirmed cases.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 88,701, while the death toll was unchanged at 4,635.
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