China has sent more than 20,000 people living in the epicenter of the country’s latest COVID-19 outbreak to state-run quarantine facilities, as Beijing yesterday reported the worst nationwide figures since March last year.
The country had largely brought the virus under control after strict measures including mass testing and travel restrictions, but case numbers have been climbing, especially in the north, prompting a fresh wave of lockdowns and a race to build a massive new quarantine center.
The government yesterday reported 144 infections — the highest single-day tally since March last year — mostly in Hebei Province, where more than 22 million people are in lockdown.
Photo: EPA-EFE
More than 20,000 residents from villages near Shijiazhuang — about 294km southwest of Beijing — had been sent to quarantine facilities starting from Wednesday, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said.
They are being housed in hotels, with family members separated.
“It’s natural that they feel anxious and panic,” Liu Jinpei, a psychologist involved, told CCTV, adding that authorities had set up a mental health hotline.
Photo: AFP
Officials are also rushing to build a massive “centralized medical observation center” in the area, with more than 3,000 makeshift beds.
The surge in cases appears to be fueled by asymptomatic cases, mostly in rural areas on the outskirts of cities.
The state-run Global Times warned the high number of cases in the regions “sounds an alarm regarding loopholes in epidemic control” as many residents are elderly.
Hundreds of millions of migrant workers are expected to return to their home villages for the Lunar New Year holiday next month, and China is rushing to vaccinate 50 million people in key groups before the festival.
Meanwhile, Germany yesterday passed 2 million COVID-19 cases as a WHO emergency committee readied to issue advice on stemming the spread of new, more contagious strains of the disease.
The surge in Europe’s biggest economy came as the global death toll from the pandemic approached 2 million, with vaccination drives still in their infancy.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday pushed for a “significant” tightening of curbs to slow the infection rate as the nation added more than 22,000 new cases.
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