China reports another 3,000 Covid-19 cases as latest surge continues

Name: China sees biggest Covid-19 surge in 2 years, steps up measures
Uploaded: 2022-03-16T04:21:30.000Z
Duration: 2 min 15 s
Description: China sees biggest Covid-19 surge in 2 years, steps up measures

Northeastern province of Jilin remains the epicentre, accounting for 60 per cent of local infections

The daily total is down from the previous day’s biggest rise in infections in the country since early 2020 in Wuhan

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Residents queue in the snow for Covid-19 tests in Changchun, Jilin province, on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Holly ChikandJosephine Ma

Published: 12:21pm, 16 Mar 2022Updated: 2:44pm, 17 Mar 2022

China reported more than 3,000 new domestic Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, a drop from the previous day’s 5,100 infections, which had been the biggest rise in the country’s daily tally since the pandemic’s early stages in 2020.

The National Health Commission (NHC) reported 3,054 new local cases on Wednesday – 1,860 people with symptoms and 1,194 without.

The cases were found across the country but most were in the northeastern province of Jilin, the latest epicentre. It recorded 1,853 locally transmitted symptomatic and asymptomatic infections, making up 60 per cent of the national total.

02:15

China sees biggest Covid-19 surge in 2 years, steps up measures

The city of Jilin, which reported most of the asymptomatic cases in the province, launched a new round of mass testing on Wednesday to “thoroughly uncover hidden infections”, according to local officials.

It came after Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who has been leading the fight against the virus, told officials in the city to step up nucleic acid testing – with newly approved rapid antigen tests to be used as a supplementary tool.

Sun visited Jilin city and Changchun – another hard-hit city in the province – on Monday and Tuesday, calling on officials to achieve “dynamic zero-Covid” and end the spread of the virus as soon as possible.

She also told officials to ensure there were enough places for close contacts of cases to be quarantined.

China’s health authorities later announced that mild cases would no longer be sent to hospitals, to free up resources amid the growing Omicron outbreak. Such cases will still have to isolate at designated facilities where they will be monitored, according to new NHC guidelines released late on Tuesday. Previously, anyone who tested positive was admitted to hospital for observation.