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Harbin residents told to stay home for the holiday amid Covid-19 outbreak

  • Multiple clusters have emerged and the source of the latest infections remains unclear, officials say
  • Another 11 locally acquired cases have been reported in the northeastern city, with two in Fujian province

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A resident gets tested at a makeshift centre in Bayan county, Harbin, where a fifth round of mass screening has begun. Photo: Xinhua
Residents of Harbin in northeast China have been told to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel during the week-long National Day holiday, as the city grapples with a Covid-19 outbreak.
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Multiple clusters have emerged in the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in the past week and the source of the latest infections remains unclear, Harbin officials said on Tuesday.

“As of now, efforts to control the epidemic have been challenging, and the chain of infection is complex because the close contacts of the infected have also been in contact with many others,” Ke Yunnan, deputy director of Harbin’s health commission, told reporters.

Eleven of the 13 locally acquired cases China reported on Tuesday were found in Harbin, while the other two were in southeastern Fujian province, where an outbreak that began almost three weeks ago is largely under control. Another three asymptomatic local cases were reported in Tianjin and the provinces of Hunan and Yunnan, while 18 cases were imported.

It comes as China is counting down to one of its biggest holiday weeks that begins on Friday, when hundreds of millions are expected to travel within the country. A total of 637 million trips were made by domestic tourists during the holiday last year, when the country had yet to launch its mass immunisation programme.
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“Anyone who needs to leave Harbin must carry a negative test result for the coronavirus from at most 48 hours in advance and they must protect themselves,” said Wang Yan, assistant to the director of the Harbin disease control centre.

Passengers show their negative test results to staff at the Harbin railway station last week. Photo: Xinhua
Passengers show their negative test results to staff at the Harbin railway station last week. Photo: Xinhua
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