The sudden rise in the number of coronavirus or COVID-19 cases in thew Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was caused due to a single source as shown by the gene sequencing samples, Cui Yan, who is from the disease control and prevention center of Xinjiang told in a press conference on Tuesday.
The gene sequencing on cases at the early stage of the outbreak in Xinjiang showed that the cases' gene sequences are similar, which indicated that the outbreak has its origin from the same infection source, Cui stated as reported by the Global Times.
COVID-19 in Xinjiang
Zhang Yuexin, who is a medical expert and a part of the Xinjiang anti-epidemic squad and also a professor of the infectious disease department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, earlier had stated to the Global Times that the gene sequencing of the deadly novel virus in Urumqi is similar to the viral strain that was seen in the recent outbreak kin Beijing.
Earlier reports claimed the deadly virus strain that was detected at the Xinfadi market located in Beijing came from Europe. The outbreak in Xinjiang showed strong characteristics of the clustering infection. Till now, 99.3 percent of the cases got discovered in Urumqi whereas two cases in Changji and one of the cases were found related to the ones discovered in Urumqi, as per Cui.
Coronavirus Cases Rising
The outbreak in Xinjiang started on July 15 after Urumqi confirmed the first case. Xinjiang reported 28 domestic cases of the virus on Monday with nine of them as silent virus carriers, as per a local government website. A per the latest reports, there are 606 active cases of coronavirus in Xinjiang with 602 in Urumqi and 15,213 people are currently under medical observation, as confirmed by the government.
The deadly virus outbreak has created a major stir around the world in recent times infecting more than 18.2 million people globally and claiming the lives of over 694,000 people worldwide in more than 170 nations. The number of cases is rising daily as an effective vaccine is expected to come by the first quarter of 2021.
