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More than 20 provincial-level regions in China have reported locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the latest round of outbreaks, and unlike the previous round, cases are found in some inland and small cities, posing challenges to the country’s epidemic control efforts.
Mainland China reported 699 new domestically transmitted infections for July 18, of which 199 were symptomatic and 500 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.
The majority of the new cases were found in the northwestern province of Gansu and the southern region of Guangxi.
In Gansu’s provincial capital of Lanzhou, a district with more than 100,000 residents was brought under a lockdown from Monday, during which each household can leave their residential compound only once each day to get groceries. A lockdown for four other major districts started last week and has been extended to July 24.
In Guangxi, the coastal city of Beihai has become the latest tourism city hit by travel restrictions. The city has told hotels and travel agencies to refund trips and stays booked by those who were eventually unable to come.
The financial hub Shanghai, which reported 23 new local cases for Monday, began mass testing on Tuesday in many of its 16 districts, after a similar testing drive last week.
The city of Tianjiang, neighbouring the capital of Beijing will shut many entertainment venues and some kindergartens and tutoring agencies after the city reported 11 locally transmitted Covid cases for Monday after around a week of zero cases.
Tianjin officials that various indoor entertainment venues, such as chess and card parlours and bars, in two districts with a total of over 2 million residents were ordered to close, without specifying a date for their reopening.
Nomura analysts said in a note on Monday that an estimated 264.1 million people in 41 cities in China are affected by full or partial lockdowns or other control measures, up from 247.5 million in 31 cities last week.
Unlike the previous round of outbreaks in spring that hit east and northeast China including the city of Shanghai and Jilin province, cases was found in inland and small cities in the latest wave, said an expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Compared with cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, the regions that are seeing a surge in the latest round are less equipped medically, and in a poorer condition to cope with the virus, he said.
The CDC expert said that more subvariants have emerged during the new round of outbreaks, such as BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5, and the fact that they are more transmissible and harder to find poses challenges for the country’s COVID-19 control efforts.
In an interview with China News Service, Dong Xiaoping, the chief expert of virology at the CDC, said compared with previous subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5 are more transmissible, but they result in roughly the same symptoms as others.