Sat 18 July 2020:
China’s National Health Commission reported 11 new cases in the far western region of Xinjiang, taking the total number of cases in the capital, Urumqi, to 17.
Authorities in Urumqi have reduced subways, buses and taxis and closed off some residential communities, according to Chinese media reports. They also placed restrictions on people leaving the city, including a suspension of subway service to the airport.
Other social accounts suggested people were being stopped from entering or leaving Kashgar, another city in Xinjiang.
Another asymptomatic case involved a man who travelled from Urumqi to the eastern province of Zhejiang, Chinese state media said.
From Friday, a number of airlines including Juneyao Airlines and Shenzhen Donghai Airlines require all passengers travelling to and from Urumqi to show a negative nucleic acid test taken within seven days.
Passengers must display a “safe to travel” health code, on an app which aims to identify potential virus carriers, the Chinese state-run Global Times says.
On Fri, #Xinjiang reported 11 new confirmed #COVID19 cases in Urumqi, and all are under medical observation. As of Fri, 17 confirmed cases and 11 asymptomatic patients have been confirmed in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and 269 are under medical observation. pic.twitter.com/QFyB1PmVsz
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) July 18, 2020
It is not clear when restrictions on transport will be lifted. State media put out assurances on Friday that shops were amply stocked with food in what was seen as an attempt to discourage people from panic-buying.
In Xinjiang there is the added sensitivity of controversial detention camps where hundreds of thousands of mostly ethnic Uighurs have been interned as part of a mass “de-radicalisation” programme. If the coronavirus got into one of those camps the same way as it has in prisons here, the possibly of widespread infection would be considerable.
As of Friday, mainland China had 83,644 confirmed coronavirus cases, the health authority said. The COVID-19 death toll remained at 4,634.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
