Coronavirus: Chinese city on Myanmar border in lockdown, scrambles to stop illegal entry
- Ruili officials admit failings in border controls as they order residents to stay home for a week
- Chinese and Myanmese officials discuss ways to work together to stop pandemic’s spread
“We should reflect and fault ourselves. This is a big alert for us,” Ruili vice-mayor Yang Bianqiang said.
For the next week, all but essential workers in the city of roughly 200,000 residents must stay at home and everybody must have a nucleic acid test for the pathogen, with the cost covered by the city, according to the government.
The restrictions were imposed after a 32-year-old woman and her 16-year-old helper – both Myanmese – crossed into Ruili illegally from Namkham in Myanmar on September 3. They were accompanied by the woman’s three children and another helper, and stayed at the home of the woman’s sister in the Aoxing Century community, municipal officials said.
The woman went to a hospital for a coronavirus test on Thursday after losing her sense of taste and smell. She tested positive on Saturday and the helper tested positive on Sunday.
