Chinese authorities put around 108 million citizens from the north-eastern side of the country under new lockdown measures as a new and growing cluster of infections halted the process of the country from becoming normal.
Cities in Jilin province have cut off trains and buses, shut schools and quarantined tens of thousands of residents. A worker at a trading company revealed that while people are feeling cautious again, children started using masks while health care workers are walking around in protective gear once again, reported Bloomberg.
It should be noted that even though the cluster of COVID-19 cases is not growing as quickly as the outbreak in Wuhan where the outbreak turned into a pandemic, China's reaction to the emergence of new infection cases reflects Beijing's fear of a second wave. The surge in new cases is also a sign of how fragile the re-opening process will be in China and elsewhere as the slightest hint of the reappearance of Coronavirus puts millions of people under lockdown.
Coronavirus re-appearing in China
This news came after China's top medical advisor Dr. Zhong Nanshan who has been the public face of the country's fight against novel Coronavirus revealed that the country is still vulnerable to a second wave.
He said, "The majority of ... Chinese at the moment are still susceptible to the Covid-19 infection, because (of) a lack of immunity," adding that "We are facing (a) big challenge, it's not better than the foreign countries I think at the moment."
On WeChat, the government of Shulan, a city in Jilin province on Monday said that it would put in place its strictest measures to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2. It was also mentioned that the residential compounds with confirmed or suspected cases will be closed and only one person from each family will be allowed to leave the premises to purchase essentials for two hours every two days.
People at Jilin are facing the same situation and restrictions that were implemented in most of China in February and March. The province reported a total of 127 COVID-19 cases, while the Hubei province had 68,000.
It should be mentioned, that as per official guidelines delivery services and selling of anti-fever medications are now halted in Jilin to prevent people from hiding such symptoms. As per Bloomberg, Wang Yuemei, a pharmaceutical factory worker in neighboring Tonghua said,"I never ever expected Jilin province to be a hard-hit area when the whole country is getting back to normal now."
Spread of the virus in the North-east side of China
As per the reports, Chinese President Xi Jinping's government is taking the required steps to stop the spread of the virus on the northeast side of the country. Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who led the government's Coronavirus task force in Wuhan, arrived in Jilin city on May 13. The CCP also removed the highest-ranking party official of Shulan on Saturday along with five other cadres.
The pressure to contain the spread of the virus became greater as the capital is now preparing for a major gathering that had been postponed for more than two months due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Thousands of delegates will gather in Beijing to endorse the government's agenda from Friday, May 22 and the government is determined to project stability and calm during this period.
Even though it is not clear to the health officials about how the new cluster started, it was suspected that patients may have come into contact with infected travelers from Russia which is currently the world's second-highest infected country after the U.S. with more than 290,000 Coronavirus cases.
