New coronavirus clusters reported in China with 5 cases in Wuhan
WUHAN reported its first cluster of coronavirus infections yesterday since a lockdown on the city was lifted a month ago, while the northeastern city of Shulan continued to see locally transmitted cases.
Wuhan reported five new confirmed cases, all from the same residential compound. One was the wife of an 89-year-old patient reported a day earlier in the first confirmed case in the central city in more than a month.
“At present, the task of epidemic prevention and control in the city is still very heavy,” the Wuhan health authority said. “We must resolutely contain the risk of a rebound.”
All of the latest cases were previously classified as asymptomatic, people who test positive for the virus and are capable of infecting others but do not show clinical signs such as a fever.
All the patients are from the Sanmin residential community, which is under the jurisdiction of Changqing Street. Zhang Yuxin, secretary and member of the Changqing Street working committee of the Communist Party of China, was removed from his posts for poor management over the closing-off and control of the Sanmin community, local authorities said yesterday. The community had previously reported 20 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
According to Li Ping, director of the Dongxihu District Health Bureau, more than 20,000 people will undergo nucleic acid testing in batches. Among the people, over 5,000 are residents in and around Sanmin residential community, and the other 14,000 are from the nearby market named Duoluokou.
Residents of the Sanmin community finished testing yesterday, and the others will be tested in the following days.
New outbreaks in China in the past two months have mainly developed in residential compounds or at hospitals.
Mi Feng, spokesman at the National Health Commission, said new infections in seven provinces were being traced.
“In the past 14 days, seven provinces have reported new locally transmitted cases, with cases involving clusters continuing to increase,” Mi said.
“We need to investigate and determine the origin of the infections and transmission routes.”
The northeastern province of Jilin, which on Saturday reported a cluster of infections in one of its cities, Shulan, reported three additional cases.
Shulan has been marked a high-risk area, the only place in China currently with that designation.
“We’re now in a ‘war-time’ mode,” said Jin Hua, the mayor of Shulan, which until the weekend had reported no local cases for more than 70 days.
Shulan has taken some lockdown measures on its 600,000 residents since the weekend, with just one member of a household being allowed out each day to buy necessities.
One of the three cases confirmed in Jilin Province on Sunday was from Shulan. The other two were uncovered through contact tracing of people who were in contact with earlier Shulan cases. Of the three, one was earlier an asymptomatic case.
Jilin’s provincial capital Changchun imposed a 21-day quarantine and mandatory four nucleic acid tests for arrivals from Shulan.
Nearby Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces each reported one case, adding to worries about a resurgence of the outbreak in the region.
The National Health Commission yesterday also called for stronger protocols at laboratories handling samples of coronavirus strains and human nucleic acid tests. Transport of samples and material that could be infectious must be strictly managed and accounted for.
(Agencies)