A northeastern city of 10 million people, grappling with what is now China’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak, further restricted inbound traffic on Wednesday to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease.
Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang and its biggest city, has banned entry to residential zones by non-locals and vehicles registered elsewhere, state media said. It had already ordered isolation for those arriving from outside China or key epidemic areas.
Heilongjiang has been in the forefront of China’s latest efforts to identify infected citizens arriving from Russia, with which it shares a border, to curb the spread of the virus. “All confirmed cases, suspected cases, close contacts of asymptomatic people, and close contacts of close contacts should be quarantined and tested,” state media cited the city government as saying.
Harbin said this month it was ordering 28 days of quarantine for all arrivals from abroad, with two nucleic acid tests and an antibody test for each. It also set 14-day lockdowns for residences where confirmed and asymptomatic cases are found.
Harbin, which has air links with Russia, reported seven new confirmed cases on Tuesday, taking its local infections to 52.
By Tuesday, Heilongjiang reported 537 local confirmed cases, including 470 discharged from hospital.