A resident from Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui Province, takes nucleic acid testing on June 27, 2022. Photo: IC

Sixian county in East China's Anhui Province was placed under urgent lockdown on Wednesday after a sudden flare-up with 32 asymptomatic infections reported, which has posed a risk of spillover to neighboring provinces. 

A number of compounds and villages in the county with a population of 962,000 were escalated to high- and medium-risk areas by the county's epidemic prevention and control workgroup on Thursday. 

The county released a notice on June 26, prohibiting unnecessary departures from or arrivals in the county in a bid to curb the spread of the epidemic in a timely manner. On Wednesday, a third-round all-member nucleic acid testing was conducted in the county, and multiple places near Sixian in Anhui and Jiangsu provinces also arranged to carry out nucleic acid testing. 

All the residential compounds and villages have been placed under lockdown since Wednesday with residents being prohibited to walk out of their homes except for taking nucleic acid testing. 

Besides, the county's education authority also adjusted the summer vacation schedules for primary and middle schools. The final examinations will also be put off untill the beginning of next semester. 

As the overall epidemic situation becomes stable in China, the sudden flare-up started with the first three asymptomatic infections on June 26. 

Among the 13 new cases registered on Wednesday, one was discovered in fever clinic, 11 were discovered in close contacts under quarantine, and one was discovered in an area under lockdown. 

Apart from Sixian county, the capital city Hefei and Suixi county have also been reporting asymptomatic infections since June 26, breaking the 25-day record of zero new cases of the province since the beginning of June. 

Since June 26, spillover cases from Sixian county have been reported in Jiangsu Province with its capital city Nanjing registering four infections as of 5 pm on June 28. All the four infections, two confirmed and two asymptomatic infections, are family members of the positive cases in Sixian county. 

Global Times