Covid-19 in China: cases near 700 as Shanghai rolls out testing blitz
- Most new infections are in the Guangxi region in the south and the remote northwest province of Gansu
- High-risk areas continue to be locked down in Shanghai, where case numbers have been in double digits for two weeks
China reported 699 cases for Monday – the highest daily tally since May 22 – after recording more than 1,000 infections over the weekend.
Most of the cases are centred in the hotspots of the Guangxi region in the south, which recorded 243 cases on Monday – taking its total since the outbreak there flared six days ago to 829 – and the remote northwestern province of Gansu, which reported 231 new infections, taking the number of cases there in the past week to 953.
Most of Gansu’s capital, Lanzhou, has been locked down for almost a week, and a lockdown was imposed in at least two districts of Beihai, a seaside city in Guangxi, trapping more than 2,000 tourists on Monday.
Many of them are stranded on the popular tourist island of Weizhou, after authorities banned anyone from going to or leaving the island on Sunday, according to a report by Hongxing News.
A woman who was holidaying in Weizhou said she boarded a ferry on Sunday to leave the island but the boat cruised at sea for two hours before turning back after authorities refused to allow tourists to land in Beihai. She is back on Weizhou but worried about getting food and other essential items because the island is locked down and most businesses are closed, Hongxing News reported on Tuesday.
While Shanghai’s Covid-19 situation is less dire, officials in the city, which endured a bruising two-month lockdown during April and May, are taking no chances – rolling out a testing blitz in 13 of the city’s 16 districts that are home to around 22 million people.