Covid-19 testing daily as China fights latest epicentre on Russia border

Name: People line up in snow for Covid-19 testing amid outbreak in northern China border city
Uploaded: 2021-12-03T11:56:21.000Z
Duration: 1 min 24 s
Description: People line up in snow for Covid-19 testing amid outbreak in northern China border city

City of Manzhouli reports most of the country’s infections for a fifth successive day and begins sixth round of mass daily testing

Harbin, in the northeast, and Yunnan, in the southwest, account for most of the other new symptomatic cases, while Beijing has one new case

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Health workers stand guard outside a residental area under lockdown in Manzhouli. Photo: AFP

Jack Lau

Published: 7:56pm, 3 Dec 2021Updated: 8:03pm, 3 Dec 2021

The small city of Manzhouli on the Chinese-Russian border has begun its sixth round of mass testing as the epicentre of China’s latest coronavirus outbreak struggles to get infections under control.

The National Health Commission (NHC) on Friday reported 56 new local symptomatic cases in the city, in the northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region, making it the country’s largest source of daily local symptomatic cases for a fifth day in a row.

China reported 80 new local symptomatic cases in total, with 10 each in Heilongjiang – neighbouring Inner Mongolia – and the southwestern Yunnan province. Beijing, Shanghai and Shaanxi province also had isolated cases.

Ten asymptomatic cases from the community were reported, all from another border region: Longchuan county in Yunnan, bordering Myanmar. The NHC also reported 30 new imported cases, of which 16 were symptomatic.

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People line up in snow for Covid-19 testing amid outbreak in northern China border city

Manzhouli has completed five rounds of testing in as many days. The fourth round, the latest to have its results available, tested 180,000 people and found 12 were positive.

“We will strictly hold accountable individuals who have helped spread infections by evading or insisting on not taking nucleic acid tests or lying about having received them in accordance with the law,” the city’s anti-epidemic task force said in a notice on Thursday.