Anti-epidemic staff check travelers' health code at the entrance of Zhengzhou East railway station on May 4th, 2022. Photo: VCG

Several Chinese cities have temporarily sealed off parts of city areas to curb the spread of the latest COVID-19 flare-ups, including Lanzhou in Northwest China's Gansu Province and multiple cities in Central China's Henan Province. Other regions, in face of the new round of virus spike especially the Omicron subvariant BA.5, rolled out targeted measures including the suspension of off-line school activities.

Lanzhou released detailed requirements on Wednesday after putting four districts of Chengguan, Qilihe, Xigu and Anning under a seven-day lockdown since Monday, 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.

Lanzhou has reported a total of 143 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases as of 10 am on Wednesday, and 140 of them came from the four districts.

According to the requirements, Lanzhou residents living in low-risk residential compounds can have one person of the family to leave the compound once a day for essential purchases. 

Despite shutdown of cultural, sports and entertainment venues, businesses essential to the daily life of residents including supermarkets, drugstores, medical institutions, restaurant's take-away services, as well as buses and subways will stay open, but customers will need to show their negative nucleic acid testing results within 24 hours, said the requirements. 

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

In Central China's Henan Province, COVID-19 flare-ups successively affected Zhumadian, Nanyang, Zhengzhou and Pingdingshan since last Saturday, resulting in a total of 114 infections as of Tuesday.

With 106 positive cases reported, Zhumadian has sealed off its downtown area for three days from 12 pm on Tuesday. Zhengzhou has carried out rounds of mass testing and Pingdianshan implemented a three-day close-off management from 12 pm on Monday.

Zhuhai of South China's Guangdong Province has urgently shut all schools including kindergartens and training institutions on Tuesday after a kindergarten teacher was found positive on Monday. 

Despite the suspension of face-to-face school activities, another 27 cases were found on Wednesday morning from the close contacts of the kindergarten cluster infection in the quarantine zone. The cluster infection is believed to be caused by the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.5, which has already been found in at least seven Chinese cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an.

The anti-epidemic situation in Suzhou of East China's Anhui Province is further better off as there has been no positive case reported outside the quarantine zones in the city since last Friday. Since June 26, Suzhou has reported more than 1,800 locally transmitted cases.

Global Times