China pandemic control goes rural ahead of Lunar New Year

 China is concentrating its pandemic prevention efforts in rural areas as officials urge people to t travel home for Lunar New Year festival while country combats its most serious latest outbreak of COVID-19.

Authorities said Wednesday local clinics and hospitals in vills need to strengn ir vigilance for any new COVID-19 cases, and local governments must take responsibility at every level — from county to town to vill.

government is bracing for world's largest annual migration in which hundreds of millions travel home for Lunar New Year break in February, many of m workers from cities going back to ir home vills.

In period leing up to Lunar New Year, we urge public that those who do t need to travel, should t travel, and if one must travel, please observe all travel information and try to stagger travel to off-peak times, Wang Bin, an official with National Health Commission, told a news conference. And to do personal protective measures and avoid crowded places with lots of people. Meanwhile, millions of people are lining up in freezing temperatures to receive a second round of coronavirus tests in a city south of Beijing that is at heart of latest outbreak.

health commission on Wednesday anunced ar 90 confirmed cases in Hebei province, whose capital Shijiazhuang has accounted for vast majority of recent surge. Ar 16 cases were reported in rastern province of Heilongjiang and one in rrn province of Shanxi.

China h largely contained domestic spre but frigid winter temperatures have brought new outbreaks, even as China pushes to vaccinate 50 million people by mid-February.

Hebei outbreak is of particular concern because of province’s close proximity to Beijing.

Travel to and from three cities — Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Langfang — has been suspended and residents of some communities have been told to stay home for next week.

All of Shijiazhuang’s roughly 10 million people have been ordered to undergo a second round of testing as authorities seek to isolate sources of infection, some of which have been tentatively linked to wedding garings.

Similar measures have been ordered around country, particularly in Wuhan where 11 million people were placed under lockdown for 76 days last winter during early days of pandemic.

increased numbers come as World Health Organization experts prepare to fly on Thursday to Wuhan at start of ir investigation into origins of pandemic.

Chinese officials said y would cooperate closely with WHO in investigation following rare criticism of WHO he that Beijing was dragging its feet in issuing necessary permissions.

China has strictly controlled all research into origins of coronavirus and has used state media to promote ories that virus may have actually been brought to China from outside.

On Dec. 15, China started a mass vaccination campaign for select groups. Health workers have given over 10 million doses of one of domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines, officials said Wednesday. Currently, China has only approved one vaccine for general use in populations d 18-59 — an inactivated virus shot from state-owned Sipharm.

It has also approved three vaccines for emergency use, including two from Sipharm and one from Sivac, a private company.

Sivac's CEO anunced at same news conference that y have supplied more than 7 million shots to provinces across country. Its vaccine has t yet been sent to regulators for final market approval.

(IM CREDITS:AP)