China opens Wuhan, closes border towns in the north

(Patria) – The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the spread of the coronavirus infection began, was opened on Wednesday after a two-month lockdown, but another Chinese city has introduced stricter movement restrictions due to a rise in the number of infected people.

Around 55,000 people are preparing to leave Wuhan on Wednesday. More than 10,000 have already left the city by plane, however, international flights as well as those to Beijing are still not open.

Residents of Wuhan are still urged to be cautious, and to stay in their homes, city or province unless movement is absolutely necessary.

All those arriving in Beijing from Wuhan will have to undergo two rounds of coronavirus testing.

China continues to maintain strict screening protocols as it is concerned about local transmission of the virus due to the presence of asymptomatic cases that are difficult to detect but transmit the virus.

Border towns are closing

In Heilongjiang province, the daily average of infected people is rising to 25 due to an influx of infected passengers arriving from Russia, with which this province shares a border.

The city of Suifenhe in that province has already introduced movement controls similar to those in Wuhan.

Residents of residential communities must stay within their communities, and only one person from each family can go out once every three days to buy the bare necessities, without lingering.

The risk of an increase in new cases is also rising in the city of Jiaozhou in the eastern province of Shandong.

China is currently most concerned about asymptomatic cases as well as imported ones, which have doubled in the last 24 hours.  

The number of new cases jumped to 62, double the number from the day before. Of those, 59 were imported.

At the same time, the number of confirmed asymptomatic cases stands at 137, significantly higher than 30 the day before, of which 102 are passengers.

Chinese authorities do not count asymptomatic cases in the total number of confirmed infections until they develop symptoms such as fever and cough, Reuters reports.