China Locks Shijiazhuang City Fearing COVID Outbreak; Over 20,000 Forced To Leave Their Homes

China has sealed off a third city and transferred more than 20 thousand people from Shijiazhuang in Hebei province to designated quarantine areas for medical observation due to rising coronavirus cases.

More than 20,000 villagers in Hebei city Shijiazhuang have been forced to leave their homes and sent to designated isolation facilities since yesterday as footage shows flocks of people standing on the streets carrying suitcases, waiting to be transported.

Reuters

Chinese authorities locked down the city of Langfang in Hebei Province near Beijing on Tuesday, putting its 4.9 million residents under quarantine for seven days while conducting mass COVID-19 testing.

This comes one year after the coronavirus outbreak rocked Wuhan, Hebei in north China has emerged to be China's new COVID-19 epicentre after recording the country's largest outbreak since last July,

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China recorded its biggest daily jump in COVID-19 cases in more than five months, despite four cities in lockdown and ramping up testing https://t.co/dIxNS9qJ7E pic.twitter.com/rGTBHoUcnr

¡ª Reuters (@Reuters) January 13, 2021

COVID spread more infectious, transmissible

Chinese health experts warned that the coronavirus spread in China appears to be more infectious and transmissible, and asymptomatic infections, especially silent infections in villages, have become a new and big challenge for China, judging from the ongoing Shijiazhuang outbreak, reported Global Times.

Reuters

Recently, China had locked down two cities, Shijiazhuang and Xingtai, as new cases erupted in the northern Chinese region surrounding the capital city Beijing, raising worries about a fresh wave of cases in a nation that had mostly contained the disease.

New epicentres found in China

Shijiazhuang, Hebei's capital, has been hardest hit in the latest surge in infections and has already placed its 11 million people under lockdown. The province has shut off certain sections of highways and is ordering vehicles registered to Shijiazhuang to turn back.

On Tuesday, the officials sealed off Langfang, a city only 64 kilometres (40 miles) away from Beijing. Residents and vehicles are banned from entering or leaving the area unless it's for emergency. Another city that is completely shut due to the fresh outbreak is Xingtai.

File

Gaocheng district in Shijiazhuang is gathering more than 20,000 people living in 12 remote villages into centralised quarantine as part of the city's COVID-19 control, state media China News Service reported late Monday.

Videos show thousands being shifted

In a video widely shared online and shared by Daily Mail, families are seen carrying suitcases and bags as they wait to board the coaches that would transport them to the designated isolation centres. The drastic measure came after a brunt of infections in Hebei were found among the local villages in Gaocheng's Zengcun Town, according to China News.

The news comes as China is bracing the country's largest COVID-19 outbreak in six months. On Monday, China's National Health Commission reported 103 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 82 in Hebei, and 76 asymptomatic cases. This is the first time the country's daily infection number has surpassed 100 since last July.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in mainland China now stands at 87,591, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.