BEIJING—
China reported 3,393 new COVID-19 cases Sunday,
the National Health Commission said, more than double the previous day, as the
country faces its gravest virus outbreak in two years.
اضافة اعلان
A nationwide surge in cases has seen authorities
close schools in Shanghai and lock down several northeastern cities, as almost
19 provinces battle local outbreaks of the
Omicron and Delta variants.
The city of Jilin has been partially locked down,
with hundreds of neighborhoods sealed up, an official announced Sunday.
China, where the virus was first detected, has
maintained a strict ‘zero-COVID’ policy enforced by swift lockdowns, travel
restrictions, and mass testing when clusters have emerged.
But the latest flare-up, driven by the highly
transmissible Omicron variant and a spike in asymptomatic cases, is challenging
that approach.
Residents of Jilin have completed six rounds of mass
testing, local officials said. On Sunday the city reported over 500 cases of
the Omicron variant.
The neighboring city of Changchun — an industrial
base of nine million people — was locked down Friday.
“(The outbreak) reflects that the spread of the
Omicron variant is hidden, highly contagious, rapid, and difficult to detect in
the early stages,” said Jilin provincial health official Zhang Yan at a Sunday
press briefing.
“It also reflects the rapid rise of the virus
situation in individual regions and the lack of expansion capacity of medical
resources, resulting in limited centralized admission, and treatment in a short
period of time.”
The mayor of Jilin and the head of the
Changchun health commission were dismissed from their jobs Saturday, state media
reported.
Three makeshift hospitals were built in the city to treat
COVID-19 patients, Xinhua reported on Saturday.
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