Coronavirus: China’s steel city Tangshan halts traffic, pauses production, as mass Covid-19 tests get under way

Name: China sees biggest Covid-19 surge in 2 years, steps up measures
Uploaded: 2022-03-20T07:08:29.000Z
Duration: 2 min 15 s
Description: China sees biggest Covid-19 surge in 2 years, steps up measures

Only emergency vehicles to be allowed on city roads in Hebei steel hub, except expressways

Jilin province once again bears brunt of nationwide Omicron surge, with 71 per cent of total confirmed cases

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Mass testing in Tangshan, Hebei province on Sunday. Photo:Weibo

Laura Zhou

Published: 3:08pm, 20 Mar 2022Updated: 8:13pm, 20 Mar 2022

China’s biggest steel production hub ordered emergency traffic controls and mass coronavirus tests after finding seven new local Covid-19 cases, as the battle continues against a nationwide, Omicron-driven surge.

The pandemic control office of Tangshan said all city roads, bar expressways, would be subject to indefinite traffic restrictions as of Sunday, with only vehicles such as ambulances, fire engines and those transporting emergency supplies allowed to run. Residents needing to travel due to “special circumstances” were urged to apply to local authorities for permission.

Tangshan, a city of 7.7 million in the northern province of Hebei, is China’s top steel producing area, where the mass testing drive has caused companies to halt production, according to the Cailian news agency. While some blast furnace workers have been retained, most employees at these companies have been sent home to isolate.

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

The orders came as the National Health Commission (NHC) said China’s total of new locally transmitted symptomatic cases edged down slightly to 1,656 from 2,157 a day earlier. Local asymptomatic cases, however, rose to 2,177 from 1,713.

China counts only symptomatic infections as confirmed cases.

The northeastern province of Jilin was again the worst hit, accounting for more than 71 per cent of local symptomatic infections, with 833 new cases reported in the capital Changchun and 327 in Jilin City. The province reported two Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, China’s first such fatalities since January last year.

At least six high-level provincial officials have so far been sacked for their failure to control the outbreak, with another eight dismissed in the country’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen.