Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - As pressure mounts on local officials to prevent a wider spread and major disruptions, China is battling...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - As pressure mounts on local officials to prevent a wider spread and major disruptions, China is battling COVID-19 flare-ups on numerous fronts across the country, including a developing cluster in Shanghai.
With just over 300 daily local infections, the overall case load remained low by global standards, but any further potential increase in key cities could necessitate the return of strict measures under China's "dynamic COVID zero" policy, which would undermine confidence in the nation's economic recovery.
Shanghai, which ended its two-month lockdown in early June, is testing all of its citizens from Tuesday through Thursday in nine of its 16 districts as well as some of them in three other districts.
In response to incidents involving a KTV lounge, it has also banned karaoke activities. However, Jin Lei, an official with Shanghai's cultural and tourism authority, said on Wednesday that the Friday gradual reopening of cinemas and performance venues will still proceed.
Shanghai health official Zhao Dandan cautioned at the conference that "many Chinese places are dealing with local outbreaks and illnesses have emerged at the community level in Shanghai, to which we should give great importance."
Zhao emphasised that there shouldn't be any laxity.
On Tuesday, the 25 million-person financial hub recorded 24 domestically transmitted diseases, up from eight the day before, according to official data released on Wednesday.
Creating cleaners
Beijing, the capital of China, which on Tuesday reported six local cases after three the day before, advised hotels and transportation hubs on Wednesday to closely adopt preventive measures like verifying guests' body temperatures and their documentation of negative test results.
The case load in the eastern province of Anhui on Tuesday decreased marginally from 231 the day before to 222, but it still accounted for the majority of daily infections in mainland China, where more than 1 million people in tiny villages remain in lockdown.
The city of Xian in northwest China put into effect a seven-day suspension of operations for major events, dining-in restaurants, and other entertainment venues on Wednesday. The 13 million-person city reported more local infections on July 5 than the previous day, going from nine to 11.
According to the National Health Commission, China reported 353 domestically transmitted diseases on the mainland as of July 5, including 112 asymptomatic cases and 241 symptomatic ones.
The number of fatalities in the country remained at 5,226 due to no additional deaths, the same as the day before.
China had confirmed 226,176 cases with symptoms as of Tuesday, including both local cases and those discovered among foreign travellers.
