A major Chinese city has adopted draconian quarantine measures against the novel coronavirus after a new outbreak was detected there.
More than 70 people have been infected and over 4,000 are being tested in Harbin after the virus was believed to be ‘imported’ into the city by a student who had returned from New York, according to media reports.
Officials have banned gatherings and ordered communities to closely monitor non-local visitors and vehicles in the city of around 10 million.
Checkpoints have been installed at the airport and train stations, to screen those coming from elsewhere.
The news comes as China today announced that there were only two critically ill patients left in Wuhan, the former centre of the pandemic.
Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in north-eastern China, has been grappling with what is now the country’s biggest coronavirus outbreak.
The government yesterday released a directive to instruct further restrictions on its residents, visitors and inbound traffic.
Before entering any public facilities and residential complexes, people must use a government-approved health app to prove they don’t have the virus, have their temperature taken and wear a face mask, the notice says.
Residents must follow social-distancing measures. Weddings, funerals, public performances and conferences are banned.
All confirmed, suspected, asymptomatic cases and their close contacts will be put into strict quarantine. All their neighbours in the same building must be isolated at home for two weeks with around-the-clock surveillance.
Asymptomatic cases are those who carry the virus but show no symptoms. They can still spread the virus to others.
Anyone in home-quarantine must pass two nucleic acid tests, which detect the coronavirus, and one anti-body test, which shows if the person has had the virus in the past.
Harbin, Heilongjiang’s biggest city, had already ordered isolation for those arriving from outside China or key epidemic areas.
The city’s government said this month it was ordering 28 days of quarantine for all arrivals from abroad, with two nucleic acid tests and an antibody test for each.
Heilongjiang has been at the forefront of China’s latest efforts to identify infected citizens arriving from Russia, with which it shares a border, to curb the spread of the virus.
‘I’m not taking my daughter or parents outside anymore. If we need any food or vegetables, we just let my husband buy it on his way back,’ said a 34-year-old Harbin resident surnamed Sun.
‘And whenever anyone has to go outside, he or she will leave their shoes outside the door to avoid bringing back any virus.’
by BILLIE THOMSON and REUTERS
Source: dailymail.co.uk
