Photo:VCG

A resurgence of sporadic COVID-19 cases in East China's Anhui Province and Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Thursday and Friday has prompted local people to rush to get their jabs.

Approximately 364,100 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province on Friday, marking a new daily inoculation record, Zhang Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Hefei health commission, said at a press conference on Saturday. 

Viral videos on social media showed, long queues at an inoculation site amid heavy rainfall at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University in Hefei on Saturday.

By 7 pm on Saturday, Liaoning reported four new local cases and five asymptomatic carriers, which were all reported by Yingkou.

As of Friday, Anhui and Liaoning jointly reported seven confirmed cases in addition to 10 asymptomatic carriers, all locally transmitted, the National Health Commission said on Saturday.

Local health authorities are taking precautionary measures like tracking more close contacts of infections. As of 12 pm on Saturday, Hefei had traced and quarantined 1,031 close contacts of the confirmed cases, of which 1,028 tested negative for COVID-19.

As of Friday night, a total of 12 locations were upgraded to "medium risk" areas for COVID-19, with one in Anhui's Hefei, two in Anhui's Lu'an, and nine in Liaoning's Yingkou.

In Beijing, epidemiological investigations traced 28 close contacts of the confirmed COVID-19 cases found in Anhui and Liaoning and 167 secondary close contacts. So far, 24 of the close contacts and 141 of the secondary close contacts tested negative for COVID-19, while 231 samples taken from environment related to the confirmed cases also returned negative results.

According to a statement issued on Saturday by the health commission in Lanzhou, the capital of Northwest China's Gansu Province, 17 close contacts of one confirmed case reported in Anhui have been traced and quarantined. All results from their first and second rounds of tests came back negative. Samples taken from the environment were also negative.

Also on Saturday, health authorities in Enshi, Central China's Hubei Province, said that they have traced one close contact who had travelled in the same train carriage at the same time with one COVID-19 case in Anhui. A total of 38 secondary close contacts have been traced and quarantined. Tracing of other passengers is underway.

Global Times