Carriers of the coronavirus from a focus of infection in northeast China have spread Covid-19 in five provinces in total, including the capital Beijing, authorities said Tuesday, July 28. It has been several months since the Asian country, where the virus was spotted at the end of 2019, largely contained the epidemic thanks to the wearing of the mask, containments and the tracing of contacts.
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No death has been recorded since mid-May. But in recent months, small outbreaks of infection in different parts of the country have regularly given rise to concern. China reported on Tuesday 68 new patients in 24 hours - the largest daily increase since mid-April. Among them, 57 were identified in the region of Xinjiang (northwest). An outbreak of cases has affected the capital of Urumqi for a few days, where millions of inhabitants are being tested.
Six new patients were also registered in Dalian, a port city in Liaoning province (northeast). An outbreak was spotted last week at a local seafood processing plant.
Massive screening
The city of 6 million inhabitants is one of the two host cities of the Chinese football championship, which has just resumed this weekend. With the additional cases announced on Tuesday, it now has a total of 44 patients. Source of concern: this outbreak has helped spread the virus in five provinces, including Fujian, located more than 1,200 km, health authorities said on Tuesday.
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The outbreak of cases in Dalian is also having repercussions for Beijing. A new patient with Covid-19, linked to an asymptomatic carrier from the port city, was announced on Tuesday. This is the first local case recorded in the capital since an epidemic focus was stopped there in early July.
Faced with the danger, the Dalian authorities announced Sunday a massive screening of residents. They said Monday that 1.68 million withdrawals had already been taken. The situation remains for the moment largely under control at the national level, with only 391 patients treated in the whole country, indicated the Ministry of Health. The official death toll since the start of the epidemic remains at 4,634.