China taking no chances of a second COVID-19 wave: CNN

Screenshot of the report by CNN

China isn’t taking any chances of a second wave gripping the country, wrote CNN on June 29.

In a report entitled “As coronavirus spikes in US, China locks down 400,000 people ... over 18 cases”, the authors compared the relaxing of restrictions in the US with stringent measures taken in China, praising Beijing's efforts to contain the new outbreak and saying they “appear to have been successful.”

Beijing’s efforts demonstrated again the “effectiveness of lockdowns, social distancing and mask wearing combined with widespread testing”, it noted.

Citing the example of Anxin County, in the central province of Hebei, near Beijing, the report said that about 400,000 people in the county have been placed under strict lockdown, after just 18 fresh cases were detected.

Other measures in Anxin included fully closing all villages, communities and buildings, only permitting one person per household to go outside to purchase supplies once a day, and banning all outside vehicles.

The report noted that after a cluster of cases linked to Xinfadi, a fresh produce market, emerged in the southwest of the capital in mid-June, authorities quickly imposed a lockdown on residential compounds in the vicinity of the market, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving. Residents had their temperatures checked and reported on a daily basis, and their food and daily necessities delivered.

Moreover, Beijing rolled out mass nucleic acid testing for the coronavirus, setting up 193 sampling booths across the city. More than 76,000 people were tested within 48 hours of the cluster being detected.

By June 30, about 8 million Beijing residents had been tested for the coronavirus, with the number of daily tests expanding from 40,000 to more than 450,000.

On the same day, Beijing authorities planned to remove closed-off management in 12 residential communities near the Xinfadi market after the city confirmed three additional coronavirus cases, the lowest number seen in 19 days.