Citizens line up for nucleic acid test at a testing site in Changchun, northeast China's Jilin Province, March 20, 2022. Photo:Xinhua

Nearly 20,000 college students and faculty members from 22 colleges that reported COVID-19 cases in Northeast China's Jilin Province have returned to campuses, the local government announced on Wednesday. This comes as the province's critical battle to achieve no community infection made significant progress. 

Geng Jianren, an official with Jilin's health commission, said at Wednesday's media briefing that local colleges have transferred and quarantined close contacts and COVID-19 cases timely after COVID-19 antigen testing and nucleic acid testing to cut off the transmission on school campuses, and then organize those that have completed quarantine and recovered to return to school. So far, a total of 19,274 students and faculty members have returned to campuses, and 17,654 of them finished quarantine, Geng said.

Since the province announced the critical battle for achieving no community infections on Sunday, colleges in Jilin continued to insist on closed management, with all faculty members, logistics personnel to live in the colleges to ensure normal operation, Jilin Daily reported on Wednesday. 

Jilin Normal University strengthened patrol, disinfections for vegetables, fruits and packages, nucleic acid testing for drivers and checked students' temperatures on a daily basis. 

Zhang Baozong, an official with Jilin Provincial government, said that Changchun's battle for no community infections also made new progress. And local districts have set up major tasks and optimized community management teams. The city of Meihekou set up 700 teams to conduct nucleic acid testing door-to-door, Zhang said. 

Zhang said at Tuesday's media briefing that Changchun reported five COVID-19 positive cases at community level, indicating that the virus was successfully controlled. 

Jilin reported 973 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday and another 1,798 silent carriers. The daily new infections in the province have showed a declining trend with fluctuations in recent days. 

Global Times