China’s northeast cluster spreads to Beijing as resurgence grows
BEIJING reported one new coronavirus case on Tuesday, its first in 21 days, reflecting the fragility of the Chinese capital’s success at stamping out infections earlier this month.
The new case is linked to the outbreak in the northeastern port city of Dalian, where more than 40 people have become infected. The cluster, which first started from a man working at a seafood processing plant, has also spread to other northeastern provinces as well as China’s southern Fujian province.
The infection threatens to undercut Beijing’s efforts that brought new cases to zero after a local outbreak that started last month infected over 300 people. Authorities had started to relax restrictions in the capital after aggressive testing and targeted lockdown measures, but resurgences elsewhere in China may now pose a threat to normalization.
Dalian city, located in Liaoning province, reported six new confirmed cases and 12 asymptomatic infections as local officials raced to test the entire population of 6 million in a bid to slow infections. China also detected 57 new confirmed cases from the western province of Xinjiang, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday.
The multiple spikes of infection are the worst resurgences China has faced since containing its first outbreak centered in Wuhan, central China, in March. The flareups across the nation underscore the near-impossibility of stamping out the highly contagious and surrepticious pathogen, even by a country capable of responding quickly and ferociously.
New waves are being seen across the Asia-Pacific region and in parts of Europe as the relaxation of social distancing measures allows the coronavirus to quickly take root again. — Bloomberg
