Photo: from VCG.

 




A total of 128 COVID-19 asymptomatic cases have been reported in Northeast China's Liaoning Province from May 24 to Saturday, all in the border city Dandong which is about 160 kilometers from Pyongyang.

The epidemiological investigation showed that the characteristics found in Dandong's cases are similar to those of previous outbreaks in other Chinese border cities, said Wang Zijiang, an expert from the Liaoning Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

As Dandong has sealed off 41 areas and set 22 places under anti-epidemic control within the city as of Saturday, Wang said the infected people are scattered in more than 40 different residential compounds or places and no specific epidemiological link has been found among these places.

Wang warned that Dandong, being a border city, may face challenges and complications in locating the infectious, sources given the characteristics of Omicron.

On Sunday, a resident surnamed Yao, who lives in the Yuanbao district, a downtown area of Dandong, told the Global Times that residents were told to stay at home and go down stairs to receive nucleic acid testing inside the residential compound every day. 

Residents can buy daily necessities through group purchasing online and community workers will help deliver the items to their doorstep.

Seven people's nucleic acid testing results were found to be abnormal in a regular COVID-19 testing in Eastern Liaoning University on May 24. The city had just stopped infections outside of quarantined areas on May 16, after a sudden COVID-19 outbreak on April 24.