JANGHAI, June 11 (Reuters) – China’s capital, Beijing, is experiencing an outbreak of “explosive” COVID-19 connected to a bar, a government spokesman said on Saturday, while the Shanghai mall did massive evidence to contain a jump in linked cases. to a hairdresser.
The warning came after a further tightening of COVID restrictions in Beijing on Thursday, with at least two districts closing down some entertainment venues following an eruption in a neighborhood full of nightlife, shops and embassies.
While China’s infection rate is low by global standards, it maintains a zero COVID policy, citing the need to protect the elderly and the medical system, even when other countries are trying to live with the virus.
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So far, the 1.4 billion country has seen only 5,226 deaths from COVID-19.
Beijing authorities said on Saturday that the 61 new cases discovered in the city on Friday had visited or had links to the Heaven supermarket bar.
“The recent outbreak … is highly explosive in nature and widespread,” Beijing Municipal Government spokesman Xu Hejian told a news conference.
The capital had registered 46 new local cases on Saturday from 3pm (0700 GMT), all people already isolated or under observation, health official Liu Xiaofeng said.
The city did not announce any new restrictions on the briefing, but later the Beijing Sports Administration said all off-campus and “offline” activities for teens would be canceled as of Sunday.
So far, there have been 115 cases and 6,158 close contacts linked to the bar, which puts the city back at 22 million in a state of anxiety.
Beijing only relaxed the brakes that were imposed less than two weeks ago to combat a major outbreak that began in April.
The extensive Universal Beijing Resort, a theme park on the outskirts of the city, canceled a plan to reopen on Friday. City officials said three of their workers had visited the Heaven supermarket bar.
Many neighborhoods in the capital have been blocked, and residents have been told to stay home.
TESTS IN THE CITY
In Shanghai, officials announced three new confirmed local cases and an asymptomatic case detected outside the quarantined areas on Saturday, as nearly 25 million city residents began a new round of COVID testing.
Authorities ordered the PCR test for all residents in 15 of Shanghai’s 16 districts this weekend, and five districts banned residents from leaving their homes during the trial period. A city official said residents should complete at least one PCR test a week by July 31st.
China’s most populous city only lifted a grueling two-month blockade by COVID-19 on June 1st. read more
“I am a little worried that if there are positive cases in the resort, it will be put in a sealed situation,” said Shanghai-based Shi Weiqi. “I will also stock up on some supplies properly in case the above situation happens again.”
Shanghai authorities said they had also reprimanded and fired several district-level officials for failures at a hotel used to quarantine arrivals from abroad, identified as one of the sources of the Shanghai wave. of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
They also said they had warned or fired some executives from a state-owned company that owns the Red Rose beauty salon, where three cases were found among workers this week.
Salon employees had not followed the guidelines for conducting daily PCR tests, they said.
On Saturday, Shanghai reported seven new local symptomatic cases the day before, an increase of one, six of which were detected outside the quarantined areas.
The city also recorded nine new local asymptomatic cases, more than six the day before.
A total of 210 new cases of coronavirus were reported in mainland China on June 10, of which 79 were symptomatic and 131 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said.
This represents an increase of 151 new cases the day before, 45 of them symptomatic and 106 asymptomatic.
On Friday, mainland China had confirmed 224,659 cases with symptoms.
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Featured by Andrew Galbraith, Ryan Woo, Brenda Goh and Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Kim Coghill, David Holmes and Kevin Liffey
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