China records most coronavirus cases in six weeks amid fears of second wave
Volunteers spray disinfectant on the grounds of a school in Weifang (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
China says a sharp rise in coronavirus infections is due to infected travellers arriving from abroad and it has led to tighter border controls and stricter quarantines in a province bordering Russia
China has recorded its highest number of daily new coronavirus cases in almost six weeks, sparking fears of a second wave of Covid-19 after restrictions were eased.
Officials say the sudden rise is due to infected travellers arriving from abroad, many of them crossing the border from Russia.
A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier and marking the highest number of cases since 143 infections were reported on March 5.
Heilongjiang province, which borders Russia in the north-east, has become China's new battleground against Covid-19 as the rise threatens to push the entire country back into a state of near paralysis.
The National Health Commission said 98 of the new cases - or more than 90 per cent - were imported, a new record.
A total of 49 Chinese nationals who entered Heilongjiang province from Russia tested positive.
"Our little town here, we thought it was the safest place," said a resident of the border city of Suifenhe, who only gave his surname as Zhu.
"Some Chinese citizens they want to come back, but it's not very sensible, what are you doing coming here for?"
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Though the number of daily infections across China have dropped sharply from the height of the epidemic in February, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on March 12 because of the rise in imported cases.
Chinese cities near the border with Russia are tightening border controls and imposing stricter quarantines in response to influx of infected patients from the country.
Suifenhe last week announced restrictions on movements and gatherings similar to those imposed in Wuhan city, where the coronavirus outbreak first emerged late last year, and extended the closure of its border with Russia.
The land route through the city had become one of few options available for Chinese nationals trying to get into China after Russia stopped all flights to the country.
Bed parts are moved into a makeshift hospital in an office building in Suifenhe (Image: REUTERS)
Suifenhe and Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, are now mandating 28 days of quarantine for all arrivals from abroad as well as nucleic acid and antibody tests.
Streets in Suifenhe were virtually empty on Sunday evening due to restrictions of movement.
Residents said a lot of people had left the city as the number of infected people crossing the border from Russia rose.
"I don't need to worry," Zhao Wei, another Suifenhe resident, told Reuters. "If there's a local transmission, I would, but there's not a single one. They're all from the border, but they've all been sent to quarantine."
People wearing masks walk in a pedestrianised street in Wuhan after the lockdown was lifted there (Image: China News Service via Getty Ima)
In Shanghai, authorities found that 60 people who arrived on Aeroflot flight SU208 from Moscow on April 10 have the coronavirus, Zheng Jin, a spokeswoman for the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a press conference on Monday.
China has cut the number of people crossing its borders by 90 per cent and has tried to stop all non-essential journeys, said Liu Haitao, an immigration official, at a separate briefing on Monday.
"Our border is long, and apart from the border crossings and passages, there are a large number of mountain passes, paths, ferry crossings and small roads, and the situation is very complicated," he said.
The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China now stands at 82,160 as of Sunday.
Though the number of daily infections across China has dropped sharply from that peak, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on March 12 because of the rise in imported cases.
China has been accused of underreporting its total number of infections.
Passengers wearing face masks arrive at the Hankou railway station in Wuhan (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
By then they had lost control and hospitals were becoming overwhelmed by the rising number of infected patients.
Within days Dr Zhong Nanshan, the country's top respiratory expert and the face of its containment effort, revealed that human transmission was taking place.
Wuhan and several other cities struggling to contain the virus went into lockdown on January 23, days before the Lunar New Year holiday, but by then millions of people had left without being screened.
That day, Shi Zhengli and her research team published their data identifying the illness on a scientific portal before it was published in February by the medical journal Nature.
In the weeks that followed the lockdown in Wuhan, the virus rapidly spread to and within other countries due to imported cases and community transmission.
A woman wearing a face mask in Wuhan, where the outbreak was detected in December (Image: REUTERS)
China is still censoring academic research into the origins of the new strain of coronavirus.
The authorities have placed new restrictions on the publication of research that could shed new light on how it was passed from an animal to a human.
All academic papers are being given extra vetting before being submitted for publication, it emerged on Monday.
Studies must be approved by the central government before they are shared with the rest of the world, according to since-deleted online posts by two Chinese universities.
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