Chinese border city reports biggest daily rise in Covid cases in 2 months
RUILI, WHICH IS LOCATED CLOSE TO THE BORDER WITH MYANMAR, SAW AS MANY AS 15 COVID CASES REPORTED ON SUNDAY
BEIJING/PARIS: China reported its biggest daily jump in new Covid-19 cases in more than two months, as a city on the border with Myanmar in southwestern Yunnan province accounted for all new local cases.
Ruili’s local government put residents in its urban area under home quarantine, launched a massive testing drive and began restricting people from leaving and entering the city from last week after reporting Covid-19 patients.
The city accounted for all of the 15 new local cases reported on April 4. The total number of new Covid-19 infections, including imported infections originating from overseas, stood at 32, marking the highest total since January 31.
Genetic analysis of the cases discovered in Ruili suggest the new local infections stem from viruses imported from Myanmar, state media reported. Of the new patients reported in the city, 11 of them were identified as Myanmar citizens.
Ruili is a key transit point for Yunnan province, which has struggled to monitor its rugged 4,000km border with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam for illegal immigration amid a wave of unauthorised crossings last year by people seeking a haven from the pandemic.
On Monday evening, city authorities announced three high risk and six medium risk areas in Ruili as of 7pm local time, reported state broadcaster CCTV.
CCTV reported Ruili will conduct a second testing drive round from April 6, and that residents who had visited Jiegaoyu City, a jade market in a high-risk area, between March 15 and 29 would need to be quarantined.
French ministers accused of dining at restaurants French authorities are investigating accusations that government ministers and others dined in secret restaurants in violation of pandemic restrictions.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said an investigation was opened on Sunday into possible charges of endangerment and undeclared labour, and to identify the organisers and participants of the alleged gatherings.
A documentary that aired on French network M6 over the weekend included an unidentified man saying he had eaten in two or three clandestine restaurants “with a certain number of ministers”. Government officials denied knowledge of such wrongdoing. Interior minister Gerald Darmanin asked the police to look into the claims.
The prosecutor’s office said the investigation is continuing despite reports that the man featured in the documentary had retracted his claim. French restaurants have been closed since October. France entered a new lockdown in response to ICUs filling up with Covid-19 patients.
One of the leaders of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) vaccine initiative has said that vaccines should be rolled out to over 100 countries in the next couple of weeks, from 84 at present.
“If we had more doses, we could make these available,” Seth Berkley, chief executive officer of Gavi Alliance, a public-private partnership that works to provide vaccines for developing countries, told CBS.