BEIJING • Cities in China's most populous province of Guangdong have locked down compounds and streets as well as ordered some travellers to furnish negative Covid-19 test results, as health officials battle to control outbreaks.

All 10 of China's locally confirmed mainland cases on Tuesday were in southern Guangdong, the National Health Commission said yesterday - seven in the provincial capital of Guangzhou and three in the nearby city of Foshan.

China's manufacturing hub and its biggest province by economic output, Guangdong has stepped up Covid-19 prevention efforts since the latest wave of cases struck last month. It reported 41 local cases between May 21 and Tuesday.

Guangzhou and Foshan have ordered home quarantine for residents of some districts, and asked people leaving by air, rail or on long-distance road journeys for proof of a negative Covid-19 test within three days of travel.

The cases have spurred city residents without vaccine appointments to flock to inoculation sites. Crowds have been severe in some places, said regional disease control official Zhang Zhoubin on Tuesday.

Mainland China reported 24 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, up from 23 a day earlier.

The tech hub of Shenzhen, also in Guangdong, saw two new local asymptomatic infections on Tuesday, taking to 15 the city's tally of asymptomatic cases since May 21.

China does not classify symptomless infections as confirmed cases.

Yesterday, people were told to stay away from areas surrounding a normally bustling clothing wholesale centre in the city's commercial district of Dongmen, with testing ordered for workers after an asymptomatic case was detected there.

The authorities are still investigating the source of the outbreak in Guangzhou. The Shenzhen outbreak is unrelated to that in Guangzhou, and officials suspect the virus was brought in by port workers. As at Tuesday, China reported a tally of 91,146 infections, with its death toll unchanged at 4,636.

REUTERS