Residents of Harbin in northeast China have been told to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel during the week-long National Day holiday, as the city grapples with a Covid-19 outbreak.
Multiple clusters have emerged in the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in the past week and the source of the latest infections remains unclear, Harbin officials said on Tuesday.
“As of now, efforts to control the epidemic have been challenging, and the chain of infection is complex because the close contacts of the infected have also been in contact with many others,” said Ke Yunnan, deputy director of Harbin’s health commission.
Eleven of the 13 locally acquired cases China reported on Tuesday were found in Harbin, while the other two were in southeastern Fujian province, where an outbreak that began almost three weeks ago is largely under control. Another three asymptomatic local cases were reported in Tianjin and the provinces of Hunan and Yunnan, while 18 cases were imported.
“Anyone who needs to leave Harbin must carry a negative test result for the coronavirus from at most 48 hours in advance and they must protect themselves,” said Wang Yan, assistant to the director of the Harbin disease control centre.
