A medical worker takes a throat swab sample from a primary school studentfor nucleic acid testing in Licheng Street of Xianyou County in Putian City, East China's Fujian Province, September 12, 2021. (Photo: China News Service)
Over 40 percent of confirmed cases in the latest COVID-19 resurgence in Putian, East China's Fujian Province, are minors under 12 years old, said a local health official at a press conference on Thursday.
Over half of the locally confirmed cases in this round of the epidemic in East China's Fujian were teachers and students in kindergartens, elementary and middle schools, and factory employees. Cluster infections are obvious in the latest outbreak, said national health official Mi Feng on Thursday.
Putian has reported 129 locally confirmed cases and one imported case as of Wednesday, since the latest outbreak on Friday.
Among the 130 confirmed cases, 53 have common symptoms and 77 have mild symptoms.
Of the 129 local confirmed cases, 58 cases are minors aged 14 and below and 57 cases are children under 12.
In accordance with the national epidemic prevention and control regulations, COVID-19 patients are not allowed to be accompanied during their treatment. If both the child and the child's family members test positive, the hospital will try to arrange them in the same ward, officials said.
A group of 20 pediatrician and 40 nurses from the provincial hospitals in Fujian have gone to Putian on Wednesday to assist in the treatment of children.
Experts in China believe that the vaccination of children should be included on the agenda as soon as possible.
China's vaccination program for young people currently targets minors with the age range of 12 to 17 years old.
Putian, a well-known shoe-making city in China, has launched city-wide nucleic acid tests and imposed access control to all communities on Tuesday to stem COVID-19 infections.
Putian's locally-transmitted epidemic mainly has two chains of transmission -- one relating to Putou Primary School and the other relating to Xiesheng shoe-making factory, where 28 employees were found to have been infected.
