Northeast China, especially Jilin Province, is suffering from a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, mostly with asymptomatic patients, so areas in the region are carrying out large-scale nucleic acid testing for all local residents to discover silent carriers.
Chinese medical experts said this is necessary and have reassured the public that the country’s COVID-19 testing capacity is sufficient to test all citizens within one month.
The province reported another 46 cases on Tuesday, of whom 34 were confirmed after being diagnosed as asymptomatic patients.
Since the outbreak following imported cases on January 10, 190 cases have been found in Jilin Province as of 9am on Tuesday, including 133 confirmed cases and 57 asymptomatic infections, Jilin’s government said at Wednesday’s press conference.
The government said the recent confirmed cases were mainly those who had been silent carriers, and 111 asymptomatic cases have been confirmed, accounting for 83.45 percent of the cases so far.
Also, this outbreak is mainly clustered infections, said the government.
Notably, there was a super spreader reported in Jilin who arrived in the province and moved around in two areas from January 6-11, with 144 people being in close contact.
The person was in contact with a large number of people in a confined space for a long time, resulting in cluster transmission.
Of those infections found so far in Jilin, 92 were close contacts of the super spreader and 52 were related personnel with the close contacts.
A staff member works in a temporary COVID-19 testing lab in Wangkui County, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, Jan. 17, 2021. Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province reported 12 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 19 asymptomatic infections on Saturday, local health authorities said Sunday. The cases were all close contacts or secondary close contacts of earlier COVID-19 infections in Huiqi Village, Wangkui County. (Photo by Zhang Tao/Xinhua)
