New Delhi: China reported one of the highest daily surges in cases after it reported, 5,280 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. The National Health Commission said it was the highest in two years.
The worst-hit area is Jilin province. At least 10 cities & counties have been locked down because of the latest surge, including the tech hub of Shenzhen, home to 17 million, reports AFP
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One of the biggest characteristics of the Omicron variant is that is fast-spreading, China has reported over 10,000 cases in the first two weeks of March. No new deaths have been reported in the multiple outbreaks across China. While most of the cases are in Jilin province, smaller outbreaks have been reported in other provinces and major cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, according to AP.
Residents of Jilin - a province that borders Russia and North Korea - have been barred from leaving the province and travelling between cities. The provincial capital, Changchun which is also an auto manufacturing hub has been in lockdown since Friday as authorities conduct repeated rounds of mass testing both there and in the city of Jilin, AP reported.
According to the report, medical workers have been flown in from other provinces along with pandemic response supplies, and the province has mobilized 7,000 military reservists to help with the response.
Local authorities have conducted multiple rounds of mass nucleic acid testing and built makeshift hospitals to contain the latest outbreak, official news agency Xinhua reported.