People queue up for nucleic acid testing in Lanzhou, Northwest China's Gansu Province on July 13, 2022. Photo: snapshot from Lanzhou TV News.

 

Lanzhou in Northwest China's Gansu Province has sealed off its four city districts in downtown area for seven days to curb the spread of the latest COVID-19 flare-up, which started from last Friday.

According to the local health authority, Lanzhou has reported a total of 143 locally-transmitted COVID-19cases as of 10 am on Wednesday, and 140 of them came from the districts of Chengguan, Qilihe, Xigu and Anning.

Having put the four districts under a seven-day lockdown since Monday, Lanzhou released detailed requirements on Wednesday, asking most of its residents to stay within their residential compounds and work from home, except for those whose work is related to medical assistance, emergency rescue, epidemic prevention and delivery services.

People living in low-risk residential compounds can have one person of the family to leave the compound once a day for essential purchases. Supermarkets, farmers' markets, drugstores, medical institutions, restaurant's take-away services, as well as buses and subways will still open for the public, however customers will need to show their negative nucleic acid testing results within 24 hours.

Additionally, Lanzhou anti-epidemic authorities emphasized that no medical institutions can refuse to receive patients for any reason.

Lanzhou must improve its  nucleic acid testing efficiency as best as it can to cut off the transmission chain at the community level as quickly as possible, said Gansu's Party chief Yin Hong, while inspecting the capital city's anti-epidemic measures on Tuesday.