China has recorded the biggest daily jump in COVID-19 cases in more than five months, despite four cities in lockdown, increased testing and other measures aimed at preventing another wave of infections in the world’s second-biggest economy.
Most of the new infections were reported near the capital, Beijing, but a province in northeast China also saw a rise in new cases, official data showed yesterday, amid a resurgence that has seen more than 28 million people under home quarantine.
The Chinese National Health Commission said in a statement that a total of 115 new confirmed cases were reported in the country, compared with 55 a day earlier. It was the highest daily increase since July 30.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The commission said that 107 of the new cases were local infections. Hebei, the province that surrounds Beijing, accounted for 90 of the cases, while the northeastern province of Heilongjiang reported 16 new cases.
The spike in new cases comes as a WHO team of investigators probing the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic are today set to arrive in Wuhan, where the disease first emerged in late 2019.
Much remains unknown about the origins of the virus, and China has been sensitive about suspicion of a cover-up that delayed its initial response and allowed COVID-19 to spread.
A health expert affiliated with the WHO said previously that expectations should be “very low” that the team would reach a conclusion from its trip to China.
Hebei has put three cities — Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Langfang — into lockdown as part of the efforts to keep the virus from spreading further, while local authorities in Beijing have stepped up screening and prevention measures to prevent another cluster from developing there.
Heilongjiang yesterday declared a COVID-19 emergency. The city of Suihua, which borders the provincial capital, Harbin, put its 5.2 million people under lockdown.
Most of the cases in Heilongjiang have been found in Wangkui County, under Suihua’s jurisdiction, which had already been put into a lockdown earlier this week.
Tieli, a city of about 300,000 people that borders Suihua, yesterday said that it would not allow any people or vehicles to leave for three days as part of new COVID-19 prevention measures.
China’s state planning agency has said that it expects travel during next month’s Lunar New Year holiday to be markedly lower than normal, with a bigger share of people traveling in private vehicles rather than other forms of transportation.
Many provinces have asked migrant workers to refrain from traveling during the holiday.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to 38 from 81 cases a day earlier. Seven of those were reported in Jilin, another northeastern province that borders Heilongjiang, underscoring the risk of transmission into differenet parts of the country.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China stood at 87,706, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese