Beijing On High Alert! China’s Capital Reports Surge In Covid Cases, Shanghai Registers 39 Deaths in a Day

Many of the fences were erected around compounds designated "sealed areas" - buildings where at least one person tested positive for Covid-19, meaning residents are forbidden from leaving their front doors.

China Covid: Amid an unprecedented spike in the covid cases, China’s capital Beijing sounded high alert as the situation turned “grim” following the emergence of clusters of COVID-19. Shanghai, China’s financial hub, reported 39 more deaths due to the virus, the highest in a day so far during the current outbreak since last month.

Country’s mainland, on the other hand, logged 21,796 cases, including 1,566 positive cases and the remaining asymptomatic cases mostly in Shanghai, China’s National Health Commission reported on Sunday.

Beijing, the seat of China’s top leadership, went on high COVID-19 alert as the city braced to test some sections of the population after the city recorded 22 new community cases on Saturday.

The city went on high alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday following which city officials suspended classes in the school for a week.

Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said undetected local transmissions started in the city about a week ago, and involved schools, tour groups and families.

“There were hidden transmissions for a week and the infected people came from different backgrounds and a wide range of activities,” Pang was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post

Mass testing will be conducted on senior citizens who had been on tour groups, construction workers and the people working at the school where the cluster was identified, Pang said.

On Friday, Beijing Communist Party boss Cai Qi, mayor Chen Jining and other city leaders met twice to organise control efforts.

“The meeting pointed out that our city [Beijing] had suddenly recorded some cases and many transmission chains were involved. The risk of further hidden transmission is high. The situation is urgent and grim,” state-run Beijing Daily reported.

Shanghai Remains Covid Epicentre

Shanghai has been reporting a continuous surge in the covid cases as the city remains the epicentre of the Omicron variant of the Covid virus. Apart from Shanghai, 16 other provincial-level regions on the mainland saw new local COVID-19 cases, including 60 in Jilin, 26 in Heilongjiang, and 22 in Beijing, the report said.

Also, 29,531 people were undergoing treatment for the coronavirus across the country, the report said. On Saturday, Shanghai reported 23,370 new cases, taking the city’s total to about 466,000 since March 1.

(With agency inputs)