A day before the lockdown restrictions are lifted in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, Chinese government officials had apparently issued orders to impose urgent and immediate lockdowns in Hubei villages as an increasing number of COVID-19 cases start cropping up across the mainland.
If a recently shared post by human rights activist Jennifer Zeng on Twitter is any indication, authorities have issued urgent lockdown orders for villages in the Hubei province of China. The post appears to show a WeChat conversation from the village of Xieyuan with an urgent notice calling for emergency measures to be enforced in the villages across the province effective immediately.
Emergency lockdown order issued in Hubei villages
"Urgent notice: Restart the 'lock-down-every-village' measure to contain Virus, leaving only one exit/entry spot open," the notice reads, as translated by Zeng. "Close all non-essential shops again. Re-initiate group purchase mechanism. Monitor temperatures of those who returned from other places and who've had close contact with them every day, etc."
This had led many to speculate that the government is not revealing the true extent of the outbreak as a new wave of coronavirus cases that have started to emerge across the country.
New wave of coronavirus cases
Although China claims they have managed to contain the deadly outbreak, there has been a steady rise in new infections as well as asymptomatic cases (people who have tested positive but show no outward symptoms of the virus), which China only started taking into account last week.
According to numbers obtained from the National Health Commission, some 39 new cases of coronavirus were recorded on Sunday, out of which 38 were imported, and 1 transmitted locally in Guangdong province by somebody who travelled from Hubei province, as reported by RTE.
These figures are up from 30 new cases reported the day before, the biggest jump in new confirmed cases in China this month. Moreover, a further 78 asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 were reported on Sunday, up from 47 cases from the day before.
Second wave of infections have started
It appears as the second wave of coronavirus infections in the country have already begun. On March 31, the Jia county in China's Henan province, which is home to more than 600,000 people was locked down again after three doctors were diagnosed as asymptomatic carriers.
There have been a series of new COVID-19 reports cropping up across China, including one citizen collapsing on the streets, in a scene reminiscent of earlier this year when the COVID-19 outbreak had just emerged in China. Video footage of these reports is being circulated on social media.
Wuhan lockdown revoked?
The surge in cases has prompted Wuhan officials to revoke the "epidemic-free" status of 45 residential compounds in the city, according to a news report published by the official Xinhua news agency.
"Epidemic-free" status allows people living in Wuhan compounds to leave their homes for two hours at a time. The rising number of cases and emergency measures being implemented as a result have led to concerns that China could potentially be heading towards a second outbreak of the deadly virus.
