Stay-home call made in outbreak in Chinese cities

BEIJING — Chinese authorities asked residents in two cities south of Beijing to stay home for seven days as they try to stamp out a COVID-19 outbreak in which more than 300 people have tested positive in the past week.

The cities of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai in Hebei province are restricting people to their communities and villages and have banned gatherings, according to notices they posted on social media.

Hebei reported 14 more confirmed cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total in the ongoing outbreak to 137. It has found an additional 197 people without symptoms who tested positive. China does not include such asymptomatic cases in its confirmed count.

In a separate outbreak, three more cases were reported in Liaoning province in the northeast, bringing the total there to 84 since the first cases surfaced about three weeks ago. Beijing has had 31 cases over the same period, though no new ones in the past 24 hours.

In other global developments:

■ India will kick off its coronavirus vaccination drive on Jan. 16 to stem the pandemic in the world’s second-most-populous country. The Health Ministry said Saturday that priority will be given to health care and front-line workers, whose numbers are estimated to be about 30 million.

■ COVID-19 vaccine shots will be free in China, where more than 9 million doses have been given to date, health officials in Beijing said Saturday.

“Ordinary people will not need to spend a penny,” Zheng Zhongwei, a National Health Commission official, said at a news conference.

The announcement cleared up confusion from a news conference nine days ago at which Zheng said it would be affordable and a more senior official, Vice Minister Zeng Yixin, jumped in to say it would be free.

■ Several regional governments in Japan asked for a state of emergency declaration like the one issued by the prime minister to the Tokyo area to stem the surging rise in coronavirus cases.

The heads of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures in central Japan relayed their request in an online conference call on Saturday.