Lockdown in China's Hebei province: 11 million people barred from leaving city

Shanghai, Ta. Thursday, January 7, 2020

People in the northern Chinese capital and largest city, Hebei, have been banned from leaving their homes as a precautionary measure against the spread of the corona virus.

Of the 52 cases reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday, 51 were from Abel. A total of 20 cases were reported from across the province, including Beijing. Authorities in Xi'anzong, which has a population of 1.1 million, began mass testing and banned crowds from gathering. In addition to not leaving home and the city, people and vehicles in the city area were also told not to leave the high risk zone.

On Tuesday, Hebei entered war-time mode, meaning that investigation teams would be deployed in every city, province and district headquarters to identify infected people as well as those they came in contact with. Chinese government media had earlier reported that Shijiazhuang province had banned people from entering the city from the main railway station.

Earlier, it was also made mandatory for those entering the city to show a negative certificate of Corona testing 72 hours before boarding the train. Earlier, 63 new cases were reported across China today as against 32 cases a day earlier. This is the highest number since 127 cases were registered on July 30.

The number of asymptomatic carriers infected with the SARS-Covi-2 virus rose from 64 a day earlier to 79. Since the first case of Corona appeared in Wuhan in the last days of 2019, the total number of Covi-19 cases in China has risen to 87,278.