Some counties and cities in the regions around Shanghai have stepped up epidemic prevention and control after spillover cases from the epicenter were detected. Officials said the risk of transmission in communities still exists. These anti-epidemic measures include issuing a yellow health code to every resident and carrying out traffic controls, implementing de facto countywide lockdowns.

Tonglu county in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, rolled out a new round of nucleic acid testing among all the residents for three days since Sunday morning and issued yellow health codes to all the county dwellers, which means they are of medium-risk and are restricted from moving freely.

According to a notice issued by the local epidemic prevention and control work group on Monday, all the residents are not allowed to go out of their villages or compounds unless necessary. Those who want to enter or exit must provide negative results for nucleic acid testing obtained within 24 hours.

The tightened prevention and control measures came after a few confirmed or asymptomatic infections registered in Hangzhou were found to have movement itineraries in Tonglu over the past few days.

According to the notice, these new infections had visited epicenters outside the province.

To curb the potential transmission of the virus, the county will strictly implement the controls on the areas in lockdown which will be sealed off with physical measures. Residents in areas under control and in precaution will be banned to gather or go out of the area.

Since Sunday noon, traffic control measures have been taken to prevent people from leaving the county if not necessary.

Traffic control has also been implemented in the city of Jiangyin, under the jurisdiction of Wuxi in East China’s Jiangsu Province after the province registered 62 new asymptomatic infections on Sunday including 61 from Jiangyin. Over 20,000 residents were identified as close contacts of these infections or contacts of the close contacts.

Despite that, 50 of the 61 asymptomatic infections were from centralized quarantine sites and 11 were from areas in lockdown and their major movement itineraries were mainly in Zhouzhuang township and Yunting community, a temporary citywide traffic control has been implemented and the citywide nucleic acid screening has been rolled out, according to the local epidemic prevention and control work group.

The flare-up in Jiangyin started on May 3 when three people’s nucleic acid test results showed abnormal results which posed a potential risk of viral spread at community level.

A series of emergency measures were taken including suspending onsite education and business operations except for those providing daily necessities. Catering companies are only allowed to provide take-outs.

The city has reported nearly 300 positive infections of this flare-up as of Sunday.

Global Times