COVID-19: Chinese city on the Russian border to go under lockdown

China on April 8 imposed a lockdown in its northernmost Suifenhe city of Heilongjiang province after it experienced a surge in imported coronavirus cases. The Heilongjiang province shares its land border with Russia and the Chinese authorities shut it down to prevent coronavirus infected individuals from entering the former Soviet Union. As per reports, China announced the temporary closure of its roughly 2,672-mile land border with Russia. 

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The Chinese embassy in Moscow announced informed about the closure of the border without indicating when the checkpoints would be reopened again. China has been successful in containing the disease in Wuhan city by imposing a strict lockdown and making it compulsory to wear masks in public, which many western countries failed to implement in time. The coronavirus curve in China has been flattened in the past few weeks with just a few new cases coming every day.

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According to reports, China on April 7 for the first time in more than two months recorded zero deaths from COVID-19. China has also faced a lot of criticism for its handling of the pandemic as the global community accused the communist country of not disclosing information on time. 

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Coronavirus outbreak

The deadly coronavirus infection has claimed nearly 89,400 lives across the world and has infected over 15,29,000 people globally since it first broke out in December 2019. China was the most affected country until last month before Italy and Spain surpassed it to record the most number of deaths anywhere in the world due to COVID-19. The United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Iran have also overtaken China in terms of the COVID-19 death toll. The virus is believed to have originated from a seafood market in China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the disease, where animals were reportedly being traded illegally.

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(Image Credit: AP)