Stay put for the holiday, China urges students as cases ease in northeast
- Six new coronavirus cases identified in Harbin, raising hopes outbreak may be brought under control before the week-long National Day holiday starts on Friday
- CDC official confirms China has little experience of pet Covid-19 as cat owner says she never gave permission for euthanasia
“The epidemic in Fujian province is generally under control. [The cities of] Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Putian did not report new cases in the past few days, and the outbreak in Xiamen is showing a sign of slowing,” NHC official Cui Gang said on Wednesday.
“Epidemic control in Heilongjiang is at a critical point and we are stepping up anti-epidemic measures.”
As with the previous three days, all six of the new Heilongjiang cases were identified in Harbin, the provincial capital.
China also reported 21 new asymptomatic Covid-19 cases, all of which were imported. The country does not include Covid-19 patients without symptoms in the official count.
Eight patients confirmed on Wednesday had been to several restaurants, supermarkets, property agencies and pharmacies in the city.
Health authorities urged residents who went to those locations since the beginning of September to contact their disease control centres for further testing.
On Wednesday night, Harbin launched its fourth round of mass testing, after 15 people were tested positive in the previous three, all of which occurred within eight days, the city government said.
State-run People’s Daily reported that each round tested nearly 8 million samples in the city of 10 million people.
Under a government-brokered agreement, Harbin Nebula Medical Laboratory, which tests about 500,000 samples every day, has received a credit line of 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million) from Harbin Rural Commercial Bank after experiencing a liquidity crunch.
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Feng Zijian, deputy director general of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Beijing News the country had little experience dealing with animals infected with the coronavirus.
In anticipation of a rush of domestic travellers for the National Day holiday, Heilongjiang’s education department has urged teachers, students and parents to avoid travelling and attending tutorial classes. University students who live on campus were asked to not return home for the holiday.
“We must be self-disciplined and not travel or take part in non-essential gatherings or dinner parties. We must strictly protect ourselves and not let down our guard,” the education department said.
