The authorities of two Chinese cities located in the Hebei province have called on citizens not to leave their houses for a week in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 following a new outbreak of the disease, APA reports citing Sputnik.
At the beginning of the year, fresh outbreaks of the coronavirus disease were registered in several districts of Beijing, and in the cities of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai in the province of Hebei that surrounds the Chinese capital.
From January 2-8, Hebei’s health officials confirmed 137 cases of the coronavirus and detected 197 asymptomatic carriers in the province. Around 4,000 people, who were in close contact with the infected individuals, have been put under quarantine.
Late on Friday, the authorities of the two cities announced the completion of testing of their entire population for COVID-19 and issued statements calling on the citizens to stay at home for seven days, not leave their neighborhoods without any special need and not to gather in crowds.
Among other things, operation of all public transport was suspended in Shijiazhuang starting Saturday morning.
According to open sources, Shijiazhuang, which is situated around 300 kilometers (186,4 miles) southwest of Beijing, has a population of about 11 million, while the population of Xingtai amounts to around 7 million.
As of now, China has registered 96,562 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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