China pandemic control goes rural ahead of Lunar New Year
- by Virginia Carter
- in World Media
- — Jan 14, 2021
Jinzhong City in the province reported one confirmed case on Tuesday.
The death comes as China readies for the arrival of an expert team of scientists from the World Health Organization, who will start a politically sensitive investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hebei's capital Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million that accounted for 39 of the new COVID-19 cases, has been hardest hit in the latest surge in infections and has been placed under lockdown.
The commission said 124 of the new cases were local infections, 81 of which were reported in Hebei province surrounding Beijing and 43 in northeastern Heilongjiang province.
China has recorded its highest daily increase of new coronavirus infections since last July after a recent cluster of cases in northern Hebei province.
But another 138 infections were reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday - the highest single-day tally since March previous year.
The total number of confirmed cases reported in mainland China stands at 87,591, with an official death toll of 4,634.
Over 70 percent of confirmed cases distributed are in rural areas, which have the tradition of holding weddings ahead of the Lunar New Year. Hebei, the province that surrounds Beijing, accounted for 90 of the cases, while northeastern Heilongjiang province reported 16 new cases.
The commission said 107 of the new cases were local infections and eight are from overseas.
People practise social distancing as they line up for a second round of testing in Shijiazhuang, China.
Residential compounds that these patients lived in were put into lockdown, preventing people and vehicles from leaving the premises.
Next month is the Lunar New Year holiday which sees hundreds of millions of travel to their home towns.
Beijing reported no new confirmed cases on Tuesday, but city authorities have further stepped up screening and prevention measures to prevent another cluster from developing there. Many provinces have issued notices urging workers to stay put for the festival. Seven of those were reported in Jilin, another northeastern provicne that borders Heilongjiang, underscoring the risk of transmission into differnet parts of the country.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has laid out his vision for the Communist Party for the next three decades, calling for conviction and confidence in the face of unprecedented global challenges.Xi told a top-level meeting in Beijing on Monday that he believed "time and momentum are on China's side", despite challenges including the coronavirus pandemic, supply chain disruptions, deteriorating relations with the West and a slowing economy."The world is in a turbulent time that is unprecedented in the past century", Xi said in the speech, according to party mouthpiece People's Daily.
