HONG KONG – China is battling its biggest coronavirus outbreak in months, imposing blockages in hard-hit areas, quarantining more than 20 million people and asking citizens to forgo unnecessary travel as the Lunar New Year holiday approaches in February.
The squeeze, which occurs during the coldest winter in northern China in a generation, underscores official nervousness nearly a year after officials closed the city of Wuhan to contain the initial outbreak.
On Tuesday, the National Health Commission of China reported 42 new cases of symptomatic infection transmitted locally, the day after registering 85 of those cases – its highest daily count in six months.
Most of the recent cases were detected in the northern Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, the capital of China.
Local authorities in the city of Langfang on Tuesday put their five million residents in a quarantine household for seven days while implementing tests across the city. Authorities imposed similar measures in the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang last week, preventing people and vehicles from leaving the city and disrupting public transport within the city.