China: Beijing On High Alert To Check Emergence Of Covid Clusters, Shanghai Reports 39 Deaths In Single Day

China’s financial hub Shanghai reported 39 more deaths, the highest in a day so far during the current outbreak since last month.

(File Photo/ Getty Images)

New Delhi: With the situation turning “grim” following the emergence of Covid-19 clusters, China’s capital Beijing has gone on high alert.

China’s financial hub Shanghai reported 39 more deaths, the highest in a day so far during the current outbreak since last month.

China’s National Health Commission on Sunday reported that the country’s mainland on Saturday reported 21,796 cases, including 1,566 positive cases and the rest asymptomatic cases mostly in Shanghai, PTI reported.

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

This development took place after 10 middle school students tested Covid positive earlier on Friday following which the city officials suspended classes for a week.

The undetected local transmissions started in the city about a week ago, said Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Deputy Director Pang Xinghuo, adding it 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,” the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted Pang as saying, according to the news agency.

The Deputy Director of Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control further said mass testing will be conducted on senior citizens, who had been on tour groups, besides construction workers and the people working at the school where the cluster was identified.

Beijing Communist Party boss Cai Qi, Mayor Chen Jining and other city leaders met twice earlier on Friday 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.

The financial hub Shanghai continued to be the epicentre of the Covid Omicron variant.

The report said besides 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 added that around 29,531 people were undergoing treatment for the virus across China.

Shanghai earlier on Saturday reported 23,370 new cases, taking the city’s total to about 466,000 since March 1.

The country’s overall death toll due to Covid-19, ever since it first emerged in Wuhan earlier in December 2019, has increased to 4,725.