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BEIJING (AP) – Chinese authorities are testing millions of people, imposing lockdowns and closing schools after several cases of locally transmitted coronavirus were discovered in three cities across the country last week.
As temperatures drop, large-scale measures are adopted in the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Manzhouli, despite the low number of new cases compared to the United States and other countries experiencing new waves of infections .
Many experts and government officials have warned that the risk of the virus spreading would be greater in cold weather. Recent outbreaks have shown that there is still a risk of a return of the virus, although it is largely controlled in China.
On Monday, the National Health Commission reported two new cases transmitted locally to Shanghai in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to seven since Friday. China has recorded a total of 86,442 cases and 4,634 deaths since the virus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan at the end of last year.
The last two confirmed cases in Shanghai were close contacts of another airport employee who was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier in November. On Sunday evening, the city’s Pudong International Airport decided to test its employees, collecting 17,719 samples until the wee hours of Monday morning. Plans call for testing more in surrounding communities if more cases are detected.
Social media videos allegedly of workers showed what appeared to be chaotic scenes at the airport as they were given last-minute orders to get tested. In the videos, people are seen standing in large groups back and forth against officials in hazmat suits.
Shanghai has been more selective with mass testing, targeting people associated with a particular location, such as the airport or hospital where a person who tested positive has worked, rather than an entire neighborhood.
In Tianjin, health workers collected more than 2.2 million samples for testing from residents of Binhai New District, after five locally transmitted cases were discovered there last week.
In Manzhouli, a city of more than 200,000 residents, local health authorities are testing all residents after two cases were reported on Saturday. They also closed all schools and public places and banned public gatherings such as banquets.
China has resorted to its heavy-handed, top-down approach whenever new cases of local transmission are discovered – shutting down schools and hospitals, locking up residential communities and entire neighborhoods, and testing millions.
Authorities in Tianjin closed a kindergarten and moved all teachers, family, and students to a centralized quarantine space. They also sealed off the residential complex where the five cases were found.
A UPS employee at Pudong Airport said one of those who tested positive earlier this month went to his office. Since then, his company has asked employees to quarantine themselves in the office and have been banned from leaving for four days, unless they signed an agreement to quarantine themselves in their homes for two weeks. , she said, declining to be nominated for fear of reprisal. She said she had been sleeping in the office since Friday, but was able to leave on Monday. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China’s approach to controlling the pandemic has been criticized for being draconian. It has locked down the city of Wuhan, where cases were first reported, for more than two months to contain the virus, as the local government halted all traffic and confined residents to their homes. Domestically, however, China has called its strategy “clear to zero” and bragged about its success.
“In the whole world, only China has the capacity to reach zero. Other countries do not have this capacity, “Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a webinar hosted by Chinese media in September.” the first wave of the epidemic is hard. “
“Zero crossing is actually the most economically efficient way to prevent epidemics. If you don’t, this problem will become more of a problem, ”he said. “Use a heavier hand and hit zero, then people will feel reassured.”
AP researcher Chen Si contributed reporting from Shanghai.
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