China Confines Third City Due To Latest Coronavirus Outbreak

On Friday, the authorities of Heihe City announced confinement measures due to the latest outbreaks of COVID-19, which had already caused the closure of two other Chinese cities so far.

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This 1.5 million-inhabitant city is located on the border that Heilongjiang province has with Russia. In recent days, the cities of Ejin and Lanzhou have also been confined due to a nationwide outbreak that already leaves over 340 COVID-19 cases.

Besides prohibiting any mass gathering in the city, the epidemiological measures in Heihe include confinement of residential complexes where only one person per household may go out every two days. In order to enter any public place, people must present a green QR code in mobile tracking applications, which guarantees that a person is not infected or has not been in contact with infected.

The local government, which also announced roadblocks to prevent residents from leaving, said Heihe must now prepare to "fight a difficult battle."

These epidemiological measures were taken even though there were only 10 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Heihe as of midnight Thursday. At the national level, the current outbreak was detected in mid-October as a result of the trip of a group of retirees to tourist areas in the provinces of Gansu, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi.

Despite the fact that over 2.2 billion vaccines have already been administered among the 1.4 billion inhabitants in China, the authorities continue their "zero tolerance" policy against COVID-19, which implies selective confinements and massive tests of coronavirus in all those areas where cases are detected.

Since the start of the pandemic, China has reported 97,002 COVID-19 cases and 4,636 related deaths, according to data from the National Health Commission.