On July 17, China reported 580 local symptomatic and asymptomatic Covid-19 cases in 16 provincial-level regions, the highest number since May 23, putting millions of primary and secondary contacts under lockdown.
Several cities in China are still fighting Covid outbreaks. Gansu province is facing a complicated Omicron BA.2 outbreak, which emerged in the provincial capital Lanzhou on July 8 and has spread to nine city-level and prefecture-level regions, bringing the total number of infections to 175 on July 14. Residents in high or medium risk areas are required to stay at home, while those in low-risk areas are being asked to go out to purchase necessities only once a day. Authorities in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, are tracing the source of an outbreak involving a kindergarten. Gene sequencing indicated people were infected with the Omicron BA.5.1 subvariant.
Linyi, a city in Shandong province with a population of 11 million, has seen a decline in new Covid-19 cases after a cluster of 26 confirmed and 262 asymptomatic cases was detected among students. New cases were only found among already quarantined people. Beihai, a coastal city in Guangxi, has reported more than 186 asymptomatic cases, spurring a temporary lockdown of its downtown area. No confirmed cases have been registered in Beihai. Huaiyuan county in Anhui province detected 151 positive infections during an initial screening and placed some areas under “closed management”, previously called lockdown. In Henan province, flare-ups successively affected Zhumadian, Nanyang, Zhengzhou and Pingdingshan last week.
Local authorities have been prohibited from imposing additional Covid-19 control measures on non-cold chain imports in an effort to stabilize supply chains, the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism said in a notice. The latest research shows that at normal temperatures the coronavirus only survives for a short period of time on the surface of most objects, and dies within a day. Nucleic acid swabs have been waived for all non-cold chain imports, but any deemed at high risk of transmission will still be disinfected. Bulk cargoes of coal, ore, chemical raw materials and grain, as well as those transported for more than 24 hours since departure or that will not come into contact with loaders, will be designated as being low risk. Li Zhengliang, an official with the General Administration of Customs (GAC), said that the Administration has devised new rules based on the epidemic situation in export regions and different transporting and loading approaches, so as to avoid repeated disinfection and unnecessary restrictions.
A team at Shanghai University has made a PCR testing robot that gets a nucleic acid sample with a throat swab in 22 seconds. The device, with a robotic arm and automated processing, can collect swabs, scan codes on test tubes, disinfect the device and conduct other procedures in the testing process. People who take the test can scan a QR code to register in the system and then follow spoken instructions as the robot arm accurately swabs their throat, deposits the swab in a glass tube and seals it. Shanghai has over 15,000 testing sites.
This overview is based on reports by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Global Times and South China Morning Post.
