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 The curbs in the city of Yuzhou, in the central province of Henan,
are similar to those imposed for nearly two weeks in the industrial
hub of Xian, which has become China's latest COVID-19 epicentre.
Yuzhou, 700 km (434 miles) southwest of Beijing, has ordered all
residents to remain indoors and not to leave town, the local
Communist Party said in a statement late on Monday.
"So far, the source of the virus is unknown, the number of cases is
unclear ... the virus control and prevention situation in our city
is very severe," authorities in Xuchang city, which has jurisdiction
over Yuzhou, said in a statement on Tuesday.
"To curb and quash the epidemic within the shortest amount of time
is a high-priority political task facing all officials and people in
the city," they said.
The greater Xuchang area reported two locally transmitted infections
with confirmed clinical symptoms, and 18 local asymptomatic carriers
for Monday, official data showed. It was not clear how many were in
Yuzhou.
Vehicles were banned from Yuzhou's roads unless they have clearance
from virus control authorities, and authorities ordered a halt to
activity in supermarkets apart from the supply of daily necessities.
Yuzhou's case count is tiny compared with outbreaks in many other
places around the world. But China is keen to keep outbreaks under
control ahead of the Feb. 4-20 Winter Olympics, being held in
Beijing and the nearby province of Hebei, and the Communist Party's
once-every-five-years congress expected later in the year.
XIAN CLUSTER
In the northwestern city of Xian, which is almost two weeks into a
lockdown, authorities demanded that officials "strictly and
properly" implement COVID-19 curbs, while new infections have shown
signs of slowing this week.
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 "We'd rather widen our
identification of groups at risk than to
overlook a single person," said Liu Guozhong,
head of the Communist Party in Shaanxi province,
of which Xian is the capital.
No one should be overlooked during testing in
key Xian areas and "household doors" should be
closely watched in rural parts of the city to
make sure people are complying with travel
curbs, Liu was quoted as saying in an article
published by the Xian government.
Xian reported 95 local symptomatic cases for Monday, up slightly
from 90 the day before but lower than the 150 cases or more per day
during the Dec. 25-31 period.
The latest infections bring the tally of local cases in Xian to more
than 1,700 since Dec. 9.
Xian is aiming at "zero cases in communities", a situation in which
any new infections are only found among people in quarantine, an
official at Xian's disease control authority told state television.
In areas where infections are concentrated, people who have been in
contact with the close contacts of cases should be moved to
centralised facilities for quarantine, Xian said on Sunday, citing a
virus control expert.
There were no new fatalities in mainland China for Monday, leaving
the death toll since the virus first emerged in the central city of
Wuhan in late 2019 unchanged at 4,636.
Mainland China has had 102,841 confirmed symptomatic cases as of
late Monday, including both local and imported ones.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo, Roxanne Liu, Gabriel Crossley and Ella Cao;
Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Michael Perry)
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