Chinese city of Harbin goes into semi-lockdown

BEIJING • China's north-eastern city of Harbin, with a population of 10 million, has gone into a state of semi-shutdown after reporting new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases for the first time since early February.

Three of 16 new local cases reported in China for Tuesday were in Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang, the National Health Commission (NHC) said yesterday. The last reported locally transmitted cases in the city were on Feb 4.

Harbin on Tuesday swiftly told its residents to avoid leaving town unless for essential reasons. Indoors venues such as cinemas, gyms and mahjong parlours were also shut, and tourist sites were ordered to limit visitor traffic to half of their capacity, state television reported on Tuesday.

The city also suspended offline classes at all kindergartens, primary schools and high schools for a week from yesterday.

It was unclear if the three new Harbin cases were linked to the current outbreak in the eastern province of Fujian. According to state television, one of the cases was found when the person went to a local hospital for testing.

The other two, close contacts of the first case, returned to China from the Philippines in late August and were first quarantined in the southern city of Guangzhou before being quarantined again at home in Harbin.

In Fujian, the cities of Xiamen and Putian reported a total of 13 new cases for Tuesday, according to the NHC yesterday, down from the average daily count last week.

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan said on Monday that local officials should not be blindly optimistic about the progress made in Fujian, because uncertainties remained and the battle against the virus was still in a "deadlock", state media reported. Mr Sun demanded that efforts to seal up communities deemed of virus risk should be stricter, according to Fujian Daily.

The four Fujian cities of Putian, Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou that have reported local cases have all told residents not to leave town unless for essential reasons.

They have also locked down areas of higher risk, closed various public venues, cut certain long-distance bus services, and halted offline lessons at kindergartens, primary schools and high schools.

REUTERS