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Coronavirus China
ChinaPolitics

Chinese city on emergency footing to fend off coronavirus outbreak

  • Heilongjiang province reports 19 more cases, most of them in Heihe
  • Qiqihar stops people leaving the city without a negative test taken within the previous 48 hours

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Nineteen coronavirus cases were reported in Heilongjiang province on Saturday. Photo: Xinhua
Mimi Lau
A city in northeastern China has declared a state of emergency, ordering Covid-19 tests for all people leaving the city as the wider province tries to stamp out an outbreak of coronavirus infections.

The announcement came as the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Sunday that 48 new community infections were reported across the country for the previous day.

Of those, 18 were in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, and one was in the provincial capital Harbin, taking Heilongjiang’s total in this outbreak to 55.

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NHC officials had said earlier that the Heihe cluster was caused by one imported case and genome sequencing tests indicated that it was not linked to other infections in Inner Mongolia and Gansu province.

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In Qiqihar, about 300km (186 miles) from Harbin, no cases were reported but authorities declared a state of emergency for its 5.3 million people, preventing residents from leaving the city unless they showed a negative Covid-19 nucleic acid test taken within the previous 48 hours.

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Checks on departing travellers were under way at the city’s railway stations, bus terminals, airport and highway entrances.

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