Chennai: In what could be considered as a case of history repeating itself, China is back in the news for another fresh surge of Coronavirus infections.
According to sources, the epicentre this time is Hebei and the rapid increase in the cases over the last few days, has forced the government to build a massive quarantine centre in this province.
Over 22 million people are now under fresh lockdown restrictions, with the authorities advising against travel and schools closing early.
Migration currently is a huge concern for the administration, as the upcoming lunar new year celebrations might risk several thousands of workers travelling to their hometowns.
To avoid this, the labourers are now being paid and given incentives to stay back, it is said.
One needs a negative Covid certificate too, to enter the capital city of Beijing.
Investigating into one of its most serious outbreaks in months, authorities have found that the transmission might have occurred due to travellers entering the country or contaminated frozen food imports.
National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei made the comments at a government meeting, where he also said the virus was spreading to rural areas and that the handling of the recent situation had exposed how prevention and control measures had been relaxed.
Since December 2020, epidemic clusters have occurred in Beijing, Sichuan, Liaoning, Hebei and Heilongjiang, a statement posted on the NHC’s website said.
“They mainly have the following characteristics. Firstly, they are all imported from abroad, caused by travellers from overseas, or contaminated cold-chain imported items”.
This surge comes as a World Health Organisation-led (WHO) team of investigators are in quarantine in the city of Wuhan, where the disease was first detected in late 2019. The team aims to investigate the origins of the pandemic that has now killed nearly two million people worldwide.
China is the only country to claim Covid can be transmitted via cold chain imports, even though the WHO has downplayed the risks, and has been pushing a narrative via state media that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered late last year in the central city of Wuhan.
Sweet danger
Coronavirus has been found on ice cream produced in eastern China, prompting a recall of cartons from the same batch.
The Daqiaodao Food Co, Ltd in Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, was sealed and its employees were being tested for the coronavirus, a city government statement said.
There was no indication anyone had contracted the virus from the ice cream.
Most of the 29,000 cartons in the batch had yet to be sold, the government said. It said 390 sold in Tianjin were being tracked down and authorities elsewhere were notified of sales to their areas.
The ingredients included New Zealand milk powder and whey powder from Ukraine, it is said.