Authorities in Beijing have urged residents not to leave the city unless necessary, and restricted those in regions with new infections from entering the Chinese capital, Xu Hejian, Spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government, said. Beijing has now reported 29 local infections and two asymptomatic ones in the latest outbreak. At the moment, the capital city is facing severe challenges in epidemic prevention and control. In order to prevent the spread and infection clusters, all kinds of overseas examinations including TOEFL, IELTS and GRE tests scheduled to be held in Beijing will be canceled, authorities announced. Beijing's airports, railway stations and expressway checkpoints have strengthened epidemic control. Residents who have traveled outside the city should postpone their return if they have visit?ed locations where con?firmed cases have been reported during their travel period, the city government said. These locations include residential communities, shopping malls, supermarkets, airports and railway stations, according to the Beijing Health Commission.
Nationwide, there are now more than 300 cases in 16 provincial-level regions. About half of the total number of cases are located in Ejin Banner in Inner Mongolia. Three areas – Heihe in Heilongjiang, Ejin Banner in Inner Mongolia and Lanzhou city in Gansu province – were put under lockdown. On October 31, 59 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases were reported in China, 27 of those were in Heilongjiang province.
Beijing police have handled 24 cases of what it called “epidemic-related crimes that obstructed epidemic prevention work”, such as organizing a group of tourists to visit Hebei province without checking their health codes. Xu Hejian, Spokesperson of the Beijing municipal government, said at a press conference that Beijing has to reduce gatherings such as wedding ceremonies, exhibitions, forums and performances, and the core areas must apply stricter measures to prevent the risk of cluster infections. The Universal Studios theme park must enter into a Covid-19 emergency state, and epidemic prevention and control has to be tightened for hotels, he said. Hotels in Beijing's core areas have been ordered to stop holding wedding banquets, after one of two newly reported cases was found to be a wedding photographer who went to the Beijing Hotel on October 23 and 24 for wedding shoots. Two high-speed trains bound for Beijing were stopped and put under quarantine after it was determined that close contacts of a positive Covid-19 case were onboard, but everyone on the train tested negative.
All those traveling into Beijing should have their health codes checked at the airport, railway station or bus station, and those without a green health code should be barred from boarding planes, trains and buses, Xu added. Ejine Banner last week implemented a quarantine for local residents and around 9,400 tourists in the area, many older dan 60. The local government started distribution of medicines free of charge and limited the daily hotel price at CNY200. Tourists who passed five rounds of nucleic acid tests, have quarantined for at least seven days in Ejine, showed no symptoms for 14 days and presented negative nucleic acid test results taken within 48 hours were allowed to return home.
Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province with 4 million inhabitants also quarantined the whole population. While visiting Ningxia, Ma Xiaowei, Chairman of the National Health Commission, said that controlling and preventing the novel coronavirus remains the priority of the government’s work, and this should not be relaxed. He urged the authorities to improve their work in containing sporadic outbreaks and trying to curb their expansion.
After one case of Covid-19 was detected at the Shanghai Disney Resort, more than 33,000 visitors were immediately tested before being allowed to leave the resort and all tests came back negative. The swift reaction was called “China speed” in response to Covid-19 risks.
China has launched a nationwide vaccination campaign for minors aged three to 11, in a bid to increase mass vaccine coverage and accelerate the building of herd immunity, as a new rebound in cases hits almost one-third of the country and becomes one of the worst since the initial outbreak in 2020. Experts said it is necessary to speed up the vaccination drive for children in this age group both to protect them in densely populated school campuses and protect those around them, especially seniors, as winter approaches. Shanghai-based medical expert on vaccines Tao Lina told the Global Times that children are especially recommended to get shots as they tend to become infection sources in households. Although minors tend to develop only mild symptoms, vaccinating them can prevent them from carrying the virus and causing new cluster infections. Tao confirmed that the inactivated vaccines produced by Sinovac and Sinopharm are very safe for children and have been widely used among the young. In July, China launched the vaccination campaign for those aged 12-17, of whom over 91% have completed two doses.
The first edition of the official guidebook for epidemic prevention during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was jointly released by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Athletes fully vaccinated within 14 days before coming to China will enter the closed-loop management system directly after arrival, but those who were not fully vaccinated shall be quarantined for 21 days after arrival. The closed-loop management system covers all venues related to the Winter Olympics, including transportation, accommodation, catering and competition. “Closed loop” means the venues are separate from the general public, and venues in the loop will be connected by designated vehicles. Those within the closed loop management system are not allowed to come into contact with those outside it. The Global Times learned that the second version of the guidebook will be released by the end of 2021, with more details.
This overview is based on reports by the China Daily, Global Times and Shanghai Daily.
