Coronavirus: Shenzhen controls outbreak while Wuhan district imposes lockdown

Risk of large-scale spread is low in China’s southern tech hub, according to health official, but city has yet to relax Covid-19 prevention measures
Wuhan’s Jiangxia district, home to more than 1 million people, enters three-day lockdown

Coronavirus China

Guo Rui

Published: 3:16pm, 27 Jul 2022

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Shenzhen, China’s southern tech hub, said it has controlled the city’s latest Covid-19 outbreak but has not relaxed prevention measures, while a district in Wuhan has imposed a temporary lockdown.

China reported 79 locally transmitted infections and 41 imported cases on Wednesday. Only one of the local cases was in Shenzhen, down from 19 a day earlier.

Shenzhen also recorded three asymptomatic infections, which are not counted in the country’s official tally, while China’s central metropolis of Wuhan recorded four asymptomatic infections.

Chinese tech hub Shenzhen to cut disruptions amid latest Covid-19 measures

On Wednesday, Shenzhen suspended the operation of two more subway stations, bringing the total number of closed stations to six.

The city downgraded three high-risk areas to medium-risk, and five medium-risk areas to low-risk, but it designated one more building as high-risk. Under the classification system, people in high-risk areas cannot leave their homes while those in medium-risk areas cannot leave their residential communities.

Health authorities told reporters on Tuesday that the number of new locally transmitted cases had decreased recently, but the possibility of sporadic transmission could not be ruled out.

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“All cases were detected at an early stage. The epidemic situation in the city is generally under control and the risk of large-scale spread is low,” said Lin Hancheng, a Shenzhen health official.

The city has closed swimming pools, KTVs, bars and other confined places in districts with infections and suspended group activities, including public square dancing in the evenings.

Shenzhen’s downtown Futian district will suspend in-person services of private tutoring agencies from July 26 to 29 to stop the spread of the virus.

Shenzhen tightens Covid-19 controls amid BA.2 outbreak

Since July 15, Shenzhen has been grappling with an outbreak driven by the highly infectious Omicron subvariant BA.2.

Although the city’s leaders have increased mass testing and monitoring in accordance with the country’s strict zero-Covid policy, daily case counts have been in the single or double digits, which is low by global standards.

Wuhan, the epicentre of the early pandemic, put one district under temporary lockdown for three days from 4am on Wednesday after four asymptomatic cases were detected in Jiangxia district, home to 1.05 million people.

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Some of the district’s businesses and public transport services have been shut down and all religious activities and tourist sites have been suspended.

During the lockdown, the district will ban large group events and restaurant dining, close public entertainment venues, produce markets and small clinics and suspend bus and subway services.

The district also urged residents not to leave the area during the three days and encouraged travellers to avoid entry.