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April 20, 2020

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Heilongjiang cause for concern, improved testing capacity urged

Source: Agencies | 00:00 UTC+8 April 20, 2020 | Print Edition

CHINA yesterday reported 16 new coronavirus cases but no deaths while authorities remained on guard against a resurgence and monitored the spread of cases in the northeastern Heilongjiang Province.

The National Health Commission yesterday also issued a notice asking for improvement in testing capacity and quality nationwide.

Nine of the new cases were imported infections, data from commission showed. Authorities reported that total confirmed cases across China’s mainland had risen to 82,735 with 4,632 deaths as of Saturday.

Heilongjiang has seen a rise in infected travelers arriving from Russia in recent weeks, and is now battling to contain a flare-up in local cases.

Heilongjiang has reported 39 new local cases in the past 10 days, or more than 50 percent of all new 73 locally transmitted cases reported in the Chinese mainland during the same period.

Most were related to one imported case in the provincial capital, Harbin.

On Friday, 18 officials in Harbin, including a vice mayor, were punished.

To help contain the outbreak, the Heilongjiang government is cautioning against family gatherings, cross infections at hospitals, and slow reporting in epidemic investigations, it said on the provincial government’s website.

“The biggest political task at present is to stop the rebound and spread of the epidemic,” Wang Yongkang, vice governor of Heilongjiang, was quoted as saying.

South China’s Guangdong Province yesterday urged local residents and expatriates to join hands to win the fight against the coronavirus epidemic.

“We give full consideration to reasonable concerns of Chinese and foreign nationals, and provide necessary guarantee and assistance to effectively protect their legitimate rights and interests,” said a statement issued by the provincial government, putting out 10 guidelines against any discrimination in the efforts to contain the virus.

Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong, is currently home to more than 30,000 foreigners. It has recently seen a surge in coronavirus infections even as the epidemic has been gradually phasing out of many other Chinese cities.

All areas in Hubei Province including Wuhan are now considered low risk. The city has met the criteria of no newly confirmed cases for the last 14 days.

However, a Beijing central district is seen as high-risk, according to a social media post by the State Council.

On April 15, the Chinese capital reported three local cases, all of which were linked to an imported infection.

Areas that are considered of medium-risk in China include two districts in Harbin, the city of Suifenhe in Heilongjiang, two districts in Guangzhou and Jiaozhou City in the eastern Shandong Province.

In urging better testing, the National Health Commission said all large general hospitals need to set up laboratories that meet certain requirements and can conduct coronavirus testing independently.

In areas under great pressure, especially at land borders, local governments should help county-level medical institutions obtain nucleic acid testing capability, the commission said.

Testing should be conducted by qualified medical institutions and independent medical laboratories, it said, adding that training for medical staff should be stepped up and testing operations standardized to reduce problems with the accuracy of testing.

Since March, an average 54,000 tests have been conducted a day in Hubei Province and that rose to 89,000 tests on April 17, Liu Dongru, a Hubei health commission official, said yesterday.

In Beijing, the number of institutions able to conduct nucleic acid testing has risen to 50 from 17 in early February.

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