Covid-19 in China: people asked to stay home for the holidays as 20 new infections reported

Communist Party and government officials in Beijing ordered not to leave city for duration of New Year and Lunar New Year holidays
National Health Commission reports eight local and 12 imported cases on Friday

Health in China

He Huifengin Guangdong

Published: 2:02pm, 26 Dec 2020

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City and provincial governments across China have asked people to remain in their regions over the upcoming holiday periods in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19 amid reports of several new local infections.

Beijing has introduced some of the strictest measures, ordering all employees of ministries and central state organs and institutions to stay in the city for the duration of the New Year festivities and Lunar New Year holiday in February.

Everyone else in the capital will have to abide by strict travel controls, which include restrictions on the number of people allowed to use public transport, including trains, planes, buses and the underground.

Lunar New Year events will be downsized or cancelled, while libraries, museums, parks and other venues will open only for visits by appointment during the holiday period, the government said.

Authorities in other parts of the country, including Liaoning, Shannxi and Guangdong provinces, have also advised people against non-essential travel outside their hometowns and cities.

China’s National Health Commission said on Saturday that 20 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Friday, of which eight were locally transmitted. Of those, six were in Liaoning, in the northeast of the country, and two in Beijing, it said.

Authorities in Dalian, Liaoning, where 20 locally transmitted cases have been reported over the past 10 days, said anyone planning to leave the city would first have to be tested for Covid-19.

Don’t let guard down over Lunar New Year, health expert warns

Cao Minghui, a migrant worker in the southern city of Dongguan, Guangdong, said he was concerned the latest travel restrictions would not only prevent him returning to his home in Hubei province in central China for the Lunar New Year but also getting back after it.

“I’m very scared and worried because I never want to repeat the suffering,” he said of the plight he and millions of other migrant workers suffered when Hubei was placed under lockdown in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, leaving them with no way to make a living.

“I will stay in Dongguan because the travel measures sounded uncertain and may change any time” he said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Mainlanders asked to stay home for the holidays