BEIJING (AP) – Chinese officials have asked residents of two cities south of Beijing to stay home for seven days while trying to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak in which more than 300 people tested positive last week.
The cities of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai, in Hebei province, are restricting people to their communities and villages and have banned meetings, according to news posted on social media.
Hebei reported an additional 14 confirmed cases in the last 24-hour period, bringing the total outbreak in progress to 137. He found 197 other people with no symptoms tested positive. China does not include these asymptomatic cases in its confirmed count.
Beijing is requiring Hebei workers to provide proof of employment in Beijing and a negative COVID test before entering the country’s capital. Chinese media reported backups of hours at entry points on Friday.
In another outbreak, three more cases have been reported in northeastern Liaoning province, bringing the total to 84 since the first cases came about three weeks ago. Beijing had 31 cases in the same period, though none in the past 24 hours.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– India will start its coronavirus vaccination campaign on January 16 to contain the pandemic in the second most populous country in the world. The Ministry of Health said Saturday that priority will be given to health and frontline workers, whose number is estimated at around 30 million. They will be followed by those over 50 years of age and population groups under 50 with comorbidities, which add up to about 270 million, the statement said. Last week, India’s drug regulator gave emergency authorization for the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and another developed by the Indian company Bharat Biotech. AstraZeneca has contracted the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, to make 1 billion doses of its vaccine for developing countries, including India. The Ministry of Health reported that the two vaccines will be administered in two doses. India is second in the world, behind the United States, with 10.4 million cases of coronavirus, including 150,798 deaths, according to the ministry.
COVID-19 vaccines will be free in China, where more than 9 million doses have been administered so far, health officials in Beijing said on Saturday. “Ordinary people won’t have to spend a dime,” Zheng Zhongwei, an official with the National Health Commission, told a news conference. The announcement cleared up the confusion at a press conference nine days ago in which Zheng said he would be accessible, and a more senior official, Deputy Minister Zeng Yixin, stepped in to say it would be free. The costs will be covered by a national medical insurance fund and government funds. About 7.4 million shots have been fired since the campaign began on December 15 to inoculate medical and transport workers and other key groups before the Lunar New Year, a major holiday in mid-February. More than 1.6 million shots were fired in the previous months. Zeng, the deputy minister, said that the specific time for a visit by a team of WHO experts on the origins of the virus is being determined and that Chinese experts will join her in Wuhan, the city where the cases of the new coronavirus were first detected in late 2019. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment earlier this week that the Chinese side had not finalized the necessary permits for the visit. Two team members who were already on their way had to return. Tedros said in Geneva on Friday that he expects the dates to be set next week.
– Several regional governments in Japan have called for a declaration of a state of emergency like the one issued by the prime minister for the Tokyo area to contain the increase in coronavirus cases. The heads of prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo, in central Japan, forwarded their request to Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of coronavirus measures, in an online conference call on Saturday, Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura told reporters. There was no immediate decision, but the government’s panel of medical experts will study the situation, said Yoshimura. The state of emergency in Japan, which took place on Friday in Tokyo and near Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, revolves around asking restaurants and bars to close at 8 pm. It lasts for a month, but can be extended. Gifu Prefecture announced its own one-month state of emergency on Saturday. Other prefectures can follow suit. Japan recently saw more than 7,000 new cases per day, with Tokyo’s daily cases reaching 2,000. Overall, Japan confirmed more than 270,000 cases, including more than 3,900 deaths.
– Sri Lankan prison authorities have decided to release more than 100 prisoners serving prison terms for not being able to pay fines, in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus within crowded facilities. About 4,121 inmates and 129 prison officers tested positive for the virus in five prisons in different parts of the island nation. Sri Lankan prisons are highly congested, with more than 26,000 inmates in facilities with a total capacity of 10,000. On Saturday, prison officials said some 150 inmates serving prison sentences for not being able to pay the fines will be released under a special pardon announced by the government to ease congestion. Authorities have been releasing prisoners for several reasons since December. To date, 10,227 prisoners have been released. Sri Lanka confirmed a total of 47,304 cases of coronavirus, including 225 deaths.