People line up for nucleic acid testing at a residential compound following new cases of Covid-19 in Ruili, a border city with Myanmar, in Yunnan province, China July 5, 2021.
BEIJING: China’s eastern province of Jiangsu found 12 new domestically-transmitted Covid-19 patients on Thursday, taking to 23 its total since July 20, in its first local outbreak since the pandemic began last year.
All 23 cases were in Nanjing, the capital of the province, its latest tally showed on Friday. A statement published by city governments showed 20 patients were workers at Nanjing’s Lukou airport.
Nanjing has started mass Covid-19 testing of its 9.3 million population, suspended a subway line linking the airport to a train station, and sealed off some residential compounds.
China reported 48 new Covid-19 cases in the mainland on July 22, down from 50 cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Friday. That included 36 inbound travellers, and 12 local patients, all in Jiangsu province.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to 35 from 18 cases a day earlier.
Among the symptomless cases, 10 were local infections — seven in Jiangsu, one in northeastern Shenyang city, one in southern Zhongshan city, and one in He county of eastern Anhui province.
Zhongshan city said late on Thursday that residents should avoid unnecessary trips outside the city and that the city had started mass Covid-19 testing.
Those leaving the city to go outside Guangdong province, where Zhongshan is based, via train stations, highway stations, ports and shuttle bus stations must provide proof of a negative coronavirus test within 48 days before departing, excluding those travellers arriving for transfer.
The infections in Zhongshan and Shenyang had visited Nanjing before being detected, and the case in He county is a husband of a confirmed patient in Nanjing city, according to reports by local authorities and state media.
The total accumulated number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 92,462, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.
