20,000 people in China quarantined due to fresh Covid-19 outbreak

Due to rising coronavirus cases, China has transferred more than 20 thousand people on Monday from Shijiazhuang in Hebei province to designated quarantine areas for medical observation.

"More than 20k people in 12 villages in Zengcun county of Gaocheng district in N China's Shijiazhuang have been transferred to designated quarantine areas for medical observation since Mon. The county reported the 1st #Covid19 case on Jan 2 during this round of flare-ups in Hebei," according to the sources. Adding that Chinese health experts warned that the coronavirus spreading in China appears to be more infectious and transmissible, and asymptomatic infections, especially silent infections in villages, have become a new and big challenge for China, judging from the ongoing Shijiazhuang outbreak. Experts stated that a weak and slow Covid-19 response at the grassroots level, which includes a failed surveillance and reporting system in villages, has spawned the recent domestic cluster infections. Also Read | COVID vaccine drive: PM Modi spells out phase one of vaccine rollout The Chinese mainland reported 103 confirmed cases on Monday, mostly from Hebei, the first time for a daily triple-digit rise in the number of confirmed cases in more than five months. Zhang Yuexin, a member of the anti-epidemic group in Xinjiang said, "The silent fresh Covid-19 outbreak shows that asymptomatic patients have increasingly become a great challenge for China's epidemic prevention and control efforts," The last time the Chinese mainland reported such a rise was at the end of July, when Urumqi, Xinjiang was hit by daily new cases of over 100. -PTC News