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Construction work under way on a temporary Covid-19 isolation facility supported by the central government, near Hong Kong’s border with Shenzhen. EPA-EFE

Coronavirus in China: Shenzhen spike of 96 imported cases driven by Hong Kong’s raging fifth wave

  • Guangdong province’s 117 cases topped mainland China’s daily tally of imported Covid-19 infections on Friday, with tech hub Shenzhen the worst hit
  • In Hong Kong, a city of 7.4 million, cases had soared to nearly 57,000 on Thursday
The southern province of Guangdong reported China’s highest number of daily imported Covid-19 cases, accounting for nearly half of the nationwide tally and with all but two cases originating from neighbouring Hong Kong.
Of 233 imported cases declared by Chinese health authorities on Friday, as many as 117 were detected in Guangdong, mostly in the tech hub of Shenzhen just across the border from Hong Kong, which is battling an exponential fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Shenzhen detected 96 infections on Thursday, all of them from Hong Kong. Other Guangdong cities reporting cases from Hong Kong were Zhuhai with six, four each in Zhongshan and Jiangmen, two each in Huizhou and Shanwei, and one in Foshan.

Provincial capital Guangzhou reported two imported cases, from Kuwait and Jordan.

Hong Kong has been the origin of most Covid-19 cases imported into Shenzhen this week. On Monday, all 31 imported cases there were from Hong Kong.

Shenzhen steps up searches near Hong Kong border to stop Covid-19 cases

Shanghai on the east coast with 43 cases ranked second on imported infections, followed by 26 in Guangxi, a southern province next to Guangdong and bordering Vietnam.

This comes as Hong Kong battles a deadly fifth wave of Covid-19 propelled by the Omicron variant, with record-high daily confirmed cases for the past several weeks. The city of 7.4 million reported 52,523 confirmed cases on Friday – just 11 of those imported- taking the total to 403,080.

The central government has sent disease experts and health care professionals to help the city’s stretched medical sector as Hong Kong struggles to care for the influx of patients, most of them elderly.

02:20

Hong Kong leader denies citywide lockdown as more Covid aid arrives from mainland China

Hong Kong leader denies citywide lockdown as more Covid aid arrives from mainland China
Last week, the Hong Kong government said a lockdown of some form would coincide with a mainland-style universal Covid-19 testing programme, which sparked panic buying that emptied supermarket shelves.

On Wednesday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor sought to assure residents that there would not be a “wholesale city lockdown”.

“I’ve said we’re not imposing a wholesale city lockdown,” she said. “As we know in some places, imposing a citywide lockdown or grounding means no entry and no exit. This won’t be the case for Hong Kong.”

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