Hundreds of flights are canceled in China following a probable new COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
Additionally, schools have been preventively shut down and mass testing has been aggravated to inhibit the virus from spreading even further.
The latest outbreak was linked to an elderly couple who were in a group of several tourists. They started in Shanghai before flying to Xi’an, Gansu province, and Inner Mongolia.
Dozens of cases have since been linked to their travel, with close contacts in at least five provinces and regions, including the capital Beijing.
Beijing has maintained a relentless zero-Covid approach with strict border closures and targeted lockdowns, even as other countries tentatively try to ease restrictions.
Officials in northwestern Beijing’s Changping district have ramped up contact tracing and tightened Covid safety protocols, state media reported Friday, with 35,000 people due to be tested.
Domestic outbreaks have largely been eliminated, but as China logged a fifth straight day of new cases – mostly in northern and northwestern areas – authorities beefed up coronavirus controls.
The National Health Commission said in a statement that China logged 28 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on Thursday, 15 more than the previous day.
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The city of Jiayuguan in northwestern Gansu province even launched its second round of city-wide testing after an initial round yielded no positive results, following reports that some of those with cases recently visited the city.
Officials have not disclosed how those with cases reported on Monday and Tuesday contracted the virus, but tentative signs indicated there might be multiple sources of the virus across China, which could complicate the country’s efforts to seek zero infections.
Three out of the five local cases found this week in Erenhot city, in Inner Mongolia, did not appear to have any connection with infected travellers in other cities, but were linked to a case detected on October 13, a person who worked at a local logistics hub.
It is unclear how this person was infected.
In a notice published Monday, Erenhot in Inner Mongolia said travel in and out of the city was banned and residents should not leave their housing compounds.
And on Wednesday, state-owned tabloid Global Times cautioned that the new virus cases in Inner Mongolia were likely to affect coal imports from Mongolia because of supply chain disruptions.
Keep up with more news here at the East County Gazette.