Citizens in Jilin Province receive nucleic acid testing on March 9, 2022. Photo: VCG

Northeast China's Jilin Province registered more than 2,000 COVID-19 infections in a day, with 1,412 confirmed cases and 744 silent carriers. The defective emergency response in some regions accounted for the sharp rise of infections, the provincial government said on Sunday. 

As of Sunday, Jilin Province registered a total of 2,052 confirmed cases and 1,527 asymptomatic cases, involving at least seven cities within the province, with Jilin city and Changchun having severe outbreaks.

At Sunday's press conference, the provincial authorities attributed the significant rise of infections to the highly contagious Omicron variant and the fact that more potential infections were screened out through city-wide testing within communities. Jilin city already finished six rounds of city-wide nucleic acid testing and Jiutai District of Changchun finished three rounds of testing and other districts of Changchun finished two rounds of testing. 

Another reason for such high number of infections is due to insufficient medical resources in some regions in the face of a rapidly rising epidemic situation and defective emergence response of some individual governments who failed to test, quarantine, and treat residents as required. 

At least three officials from NE China's Jilin Province were sacked, including Wang Lu, the mayor and deputy Party chief of Jilin city, Li Xin, the head of Jiutai district of Changchun, and Gao Yutang, director of the Changchun Municipal Health Commission.

Jilin city and Changchuan city are the two cities with the most severe situation. The cities launched a new round of nucleic acid tests so as to screen out more potential infections, with Jilin rolling out its seventh round of city-wide testing on Saturday and Changchun had its new round of testing starting from Sunday.

Jilin had put in use three makeshift hospitals to receive silent carriers. It also started to build its fourth makeshift hospital, media reported. 

Changchun had its new round of testing starting from Sunday and had all districts sealed off. It is expected to operate its new makeshift hospital on Sunday which could offer 1,500 beds. 

Officials also said that Jilin will open antigen testing to residents allowing people to buy and test on their own, believing it will contribute to early warning.

Infections were also reported among medical staff and patients in the Tuberculosis Hospital of Jilin Province located in Jiutai District of Changchun. 

The Jilin provincial governor Han Jun urged the hospital and local governments to immediately transfer all positive patients found at the Tuberculosis Hospital of Jilin Province to a designated COVID-19 hospital on Saturday after Han had a video conference with relevant officials.

Global Times