China has once again implemented a massive lockdown in Beijing since it currently faces the worst COVID-19 crisis in six months. The country confirmed that it has closed all rural areas in its capital Beijing to battle the new coronavirus crisis.
A technician works in a lab at Sinovac Biotech where the company is producing their potential COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac during a media tour on September 24, 2020 in Beijing, China. Sinovacs inactivated vaccine candidate, called CoronaVac, is among a number of companies in the global race to control the coronavirus pandemic. The company is running Phase 3 human trials in four countries and ramping up production to 300 million doses per year at a new manufacturing facility south of Beijing.
China decided to put over 1.2 million people under isolation and lockdown all villages in the Shunyi district of north-eastern Beijing. This is currently ongoing since officials are ordered to carry out mass testing for the virus.
The country announced on Jan. 11 that it also sealed off Wangkui since there are 20 asymptomatic cases reported. This county in north-eastern China's Heilongjiang Province has over 440,000 people.
What China is currently doing
According to Daily Mail UK's latest report, China also closed two cities in the south of Beijing last week. The government is now banning millions of residents from leaving to stem the latest crisis.
WUHAN, CHINA - JANUARY 29: (CHINA OUT) A community worker checks the temperature of courier in an Express station on January 29, 2020 in Hubei Province, Wuhan, China. Due to a transit shut down and lack of supplies, couriers have became the city's suppliers. The 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which originated in Wuhan, China, has infected 6078 people and killed at least 132, mostly in China.
China is also cutting transport links. The decision was confirmed after a new wave of cases were found in Shijiazhuang, a city of several million in Hebei province. On the other hand, the surrounding areas have a total population of 11 million residents.
The government also announced that infections were also detected in the neighboring city of Xingtai. The city currently has 7 million people.
On the other hand, Beijing confirmed that it received reports about a new confirmed infection and four asymptomatic patients. The city previously had more than 30 infected people because of an outbreak centered in Shunyi.
China took only three days to complete mass testing in Shijiazhuang
NBC News previously reported that China only took three days to finish its mass testing in Shijiazhuang. Mayor Ma Yujun confirmed the completion, saying that the government found 354 people infected with COVID-19.
The city mayor also claimed that there will also be second mass testing to make sure that the number of patients is correct.
Yan Xixin, the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University's critical care director, said that the number of infected cases could still increase. China is not the only one suffering from the new strain of coronavirus. Australia, Thailand, Japan, and other regions in the Asia-Pacific are currently fighting off new cases.
The mentioned countries are also doing their best to make measures that could reduce the virus spread. However, reports said that China's hard-and-fast approach makes the U.K.'s and the United States' measures slow.
For more news updates about the new strain of COVID-19, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Related Article: Japanese Health Ministry Discovers New COVID-19 Variant Different From UK, Africa Mutations
This article is owned by TechTimes.
Written by: Giuliano de Leon.
