Health

Chinese city announces mass testing after detecting 5 local Covid-19 cases

Shanghai, China, Dec 8 (efe-epa).- The Chinese city of Chengdu has decided to carry out mass coronavirus testing after at least five local Covid-19 cases were detected in one of its districts, official media reported on Tuesday.

The origin of the newly detected cases is still unknown.

Two cases were detected in Pidu, the capital of the central province of Sichuan.

The couple whose home, according to the results of samples collected by local pandemic management teams, was “severely contaminated” by the virus, which was present in various places, including the doorknob and on food stored in the refrigerator, Global Times reported.

On Tuesday, the provincial authorities reported three new cases, including the couple’s granddaughter and two others who live in the same area.

These are the first cases of local infection detected in the city since March, prompting the provincial government to announce the activation of a “wartime mode.”

Chengdu’s Mayor Wang Fengchao ordered that testing for the coronavirus be extended to all areas of the Pidu district, where one million people reside, to “make sure there are no omissions out there (in the detection of new cases).”

All educational institutions in the district suspended their classes from Tuesday and the hospital, where the infected are receiving treatment, was sealed.

The status of the residential complex, where the infected couple lives, has been raised from low to medium risk, and the list of areas and establishments that their granddaughter visited in the last 14 days, including a nail salon, park, restaurants, and nightclubs, has been published.

So far, 46 close contacts of the infected have been identified. Almost 25,000 tests have already been carried out on residents of the area, according to Sichuan’s health commission.

Chengdu is not the only city in China where local cases have been recorded in recent days.

Some small outbreaks have also been registered in other regions including Inner Mongolia and other larger ones in areas such as Hong Kong, where 78 new cases were detected on Monday during the fourth wave of infections that has raised the total number of cases in the city to almost 7,000, including 112 deaths.

The leader of the government of the former British colony has announced that dining in restaurants will be banned again and only take-out orders will be allowed after 6 pm while sports facilities including gyms, as well as beauty salons, will also be closed again. EFE-EPA

vec/pd/ssk

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