China takes soft approach to lockdown as coronavirus cases rise
- Venues closed, tourist and religious activities suspended and residents urged to stay home as nine local cases reported on Monday
- It is the highest number of locally transmitted cases reported in a single day since the end of September
Under a national policy of zero tolerance of domestic coronavirus clusters, cities with new infections have quickly tracked down and tested contacts of infections and sealed off higher-risk areas.
Five of the nine new local cases were found in Xian in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, and two were in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday.
In Xian, some tourist sites have been closed to carry out disinfection, and visitors coming into the city from outside the province must show proof of negative results of test taken in the previous 48 hours before they can enter sites of hotels.
Changsha in the central province of Hunan and Yinchuan in the Ningxia autonomous region in the northwest also reported one case each for October 18, according to the NHC.
Yinchuan has advised residents not to leave town for unnecessary trips, and closed public venues such as bars and cinemas in two districts with higher virus risk.
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The city of Erenhot in Inner Mongolia, next to Mongolia, advised its 76,000 residents on Monday not to step out of their residential compounds except for essentials. As of Tuesday morning, it had reported a total of four local cases since October 13.
Vehicles were banned from leaving or entering the city, except for essential cars with official clearance, the city’s health authority said. Indoor public venues, such as cinemas, internet cafes and gyms, were closed. Tourist sites and places for religious activities have also been closed.
Ejina banner, an administrative division in another part of Inner Mongolia, has closed all entry and exit routes, begun testing its population of 36,000 people and suspended school. On Tuesday, Ejina reported five new local cases – all of whom were in close contact with two patients found in Xian on Sunday, the local authority said.
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On Tuesday, Beijing also reported its first local case since August – someone who was on the same train as the infected person in Yinchuan.
Officials did not say how the people were infected, or whether they had contracted any variants of concern.
Including infected travellers who arrived in China from abroad, there were 25 cases in total for Monday, compared with 24 a day earlier.
The country also detected 19 new asymptomatic patients for Monday. China classifies these cases separately from confirmed ones. No new fatalities were reported, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636. Mainland China has so far reported 96,571 confirmed coronavirus cases since the outbreak began in late 2019.
