Turning point for Guangzhou with no new COVID- 19 cases reported on Tue
Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province detected no new COVID- 19 cases on Tuesday – the first time since the recent resurgence. With more communities being lifted from lockdown status, experts said that the turning point has arrived, without a possibility of another major outbreak.
The Health Commission of Guangdong Province said that no new locally transmitted confirmed cases or asymptomatic cases were reported on Tuesday.
Six areas from three districts were approved to exit lockdown status on Wednesday. Eleven other areas in the city left lockdown status on Monday.
“It can be said that the latest outbreak in the city has arrived at a turning point,” said Yang Zhanqiu, a Chinese virologist.
Chen Bin, a deputy director and spokesperson of Guangzhou’s health commission, said on Wednesday that “zero new cases” does not mean zero risk. The reopening of some areas does not mean that prevention and control measures would be relaxed, Chen said.
“There may be sporadic cases reported in the following days, but there won’t be a chance of a major outbreak in this surge,” Yang noted.
Ma Wenjun, an expert from the Guangzhou disease control and prevention center, predicted in an article on Saturday that the latest round of infections in the city would end around June 20, and cases reported in the round would be limited to 180.
Yang pointed out that the recent surge in the city had been much easier to control, compared with the outbreak last June at the Xinfadi market in Beijing. The patient zero and the transmission chain in this surge in Guangzhou were clear, and cases mainly happened in several areas in the city.
“The outbreak has been well controlled, which shows that the measures by Guangzhou are effective. The city’s epidemic control group should just be guided by this experience and continue to do prevention work on a regular basis,” Yang noted.
Since Guangzhou reported its first case in this outbreak on May 21, as of 12 pm on Tuesday, 147 locally transmitted cases had been reported in the city.