China seals off two cities to control fresh coronavirus outbreak

China has sealed off two cities south of Beijing, cutting transport links and banning millions of residents from leaving, as authorities move to stem the country’s largest COVID-19 outbreak in six months.

The pandemic has so far broadly been brought to heel by Chinese authorities since its emergence in Wuhan in late 2019, with small outbreaks swiftly snuffed out using mass testing, local lockdowns and travel restrictions.

But Hebei province in northern China has seen 127 new COVID-19 cases, plus an additional 183 asymptomatic infections, in the past week.

The vast majority were found in Shijiazhuang, a city of millions in Hebei province whose surrounding areas take the total population to 11 million. Nine confirmed cases were in the neighbouring city of Xingtai, whose area covers seven million people.

Residents of both cities were banned from leaving unless absolutely necessary, Hebei authorities announced on Friday.

Officials resolved to “strictly control the movement of people and vehicles”, with all residential estates placed under “closed management.”

Hebei residents were also banned from entering Beijing or leaving the province unless absolutely necessary.

Head of the Hebei Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Li Qi, said “the outbreak was imported from abroad, but the exact origins are currently under in-depth investigation by state, provincial and municipal experts.”

Chinese officials have repeatedly tried to link recurrent domestic outbreaks to strains of the virus circulating overseas, suggesting that it has been brought back into China by returning travellers and contaminated imported food packaging.

There are mounting fears that travel plans for hundreds of millions of people for the Lunar New Year may be ruined as virus controls tighten.

In the two Hebei cities under the spotlight, restrictions were tightened on Friday.

Long-distance passenger vehicle transport in both cities was suspended and highways closed.

Virus control staff stood guard at highways entering the city, which had mostly been blocked by barricades, the images released on Thursday showed.

Hebei province reported 33 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday in addition to 51 from the day before – pushing the nationwide daily total to the highest figure since July.

So far, both cities have tested about 6.7 million residents in total, officials said on Friday.

Staff were filmed giving injections of China’s recently approved Sinopharm vaccine, which has a 79 percent efficacy rate.