As China’s COVID cases continue to rise at an alarming rate, the Chinese capital, Beijing, has closed its schools and dozens of buildings remained under lockdown. As per the Chinese officials, a total of 200 cases have been logged in the Chinese capital since April 22. In a bid to contain the virus and to stamp out the local transmission of the virus, reported The New York Post.
The Chinese mainland reported 1,410 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 47 deaths in the past 24 hours, the National Health Commission said on Saturday. Of these local cases, 1,249 were reported in Shanghai while the rest of the cases were reported in 14 other provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Guangdong, and Sichuan, Xinhua reported citing the commission. Notably, of the newly reported local confirmed cases, 1,013 were previously identified as asymptomatic infections.
Besides the local cases, 9,293 local asymptomatic carriers were also identified in the country, of which 8,932 were reported in Shanghai. As many as 3,127 COVID-19 patients recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours, while 26,567 people are undergoing treatment in hospitals across the country. With 47 deaths, all in Shanghai, reported in the past 24 hours, the COVID-19 death toll in the country mounted to 5,022, Xinhua reported.
Meanwhile, to avoid the infamous Shanghai-like lockdown, China’s capital Beijing has shut schools and suspended weddings and funerals. According to reports, Shanghai residents have also been falling sick after consuming some of the food supplies because of the distribution of stale food by the authorities amid the city’s COVID-19 lockdown. The city’s poor handling of the country’s worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years has raised public distrust in the authorities and anger at the government.