BEIJING, 2 June 2021:
Health authorities in China have launched new preventive measures in the southeastern Chinese province of Guangzhou, which has seen a resurgence of coronavirus cases in recent days, state-run newspaper China Daily reported today.
The southern province’s capital with the same name has confirmed 41 local infections since Sunday, in addition to several asymptomatic cases – which has led the local government to expand its testing capacity with the setting up of a new laboratory.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Foshan city, also located in the Guangzhou province, began yesterday to impose selective lockdowns, among other measures.
Starting today, those wishing to travel out of the city will have to present a negative coronavirus test report.
Two resident complexes in Foshan are already under lockdown in a bid to check the spread of the virus.
Figures released by China’s National Health Commission today show that 10 of the 24 new cases detected yesterday were locally transmitted infections in Guangzhou province.
Moreover, seven locally transmitted asymptomatic infections, which are not included in the official tally, were also detected in the province.
A total of 91,146 people have been infected with the virus in China since the start of the pandemic, out of which 86,164 have recovered and 4,636 have died, according to the Commission.
Meanwhile, the confinement due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in Melbourne – Australia’s second most populous city – will be extended for at least a week.
The current seven-day lockdown would have ended at midnight tomorrow, but will run until midnight on June 10 amid fears the virus will spread in the city of five million people.
“If we let (the virus) run its course, (the number of cases) will explode. We have to make those infected go down because if we don’t, people will die,” said James Merlino, interim governor of the state of Victoria.
He said the outbreak, which has accounted for some 60 local cases since it was detected, is linked to the Kappa variant of Covid-19, “faster and more contagious than we have seen previously.”
Under the lockdown, residents will only be able to go out to buy essential goods, exercise, get vaccinated, provide care or go to work in essential sectors, while restaurants will only be allowed to sell takeout.
The rest of Victoria will end the seven-day confinement at midnight tomorrow and be able to leave home without restrictions and travel through the state – except to Melbourne – although the limit of outdoor gatherings will remain.
Melbourne lived between July 9 and Oct 28 last year in a harsh confinement due to the spread of Covid-19 linked to a series of errors in the protocols of quarantine centres for international travellers.
As a result of that wave, the city accounts for 68.4% of the total of 30,118 infections nationwide and 90.1% of the 910 deaths from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
The country, which has vaccinated more than four million inhabitants with the first jab and about 500,000 with the complete jab, has been living normally for months, with only occasional, brief localised confinements, such as the current one in Melbourne.
– EFE