The number of new local infections in Heihe, Heilongjiang Province, has been high in recent days, reaching a new high of 44 cases.
Photo: (Xinhua/Hu Huhu/IANS)
According to Global Times, the newest revival of Covid-19 in China has shown a tendency to spread across schools, harming pupils and kindergarten children, with outbreaks found in at least four locations.
The number of new local infections in Heihe, Heilongjiang Province, has been high in recent days, reaching a new high of 44 cases.
There were 189 confirmed domestically transmitted cases in the province, with 184 of them coming from Heihe.
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Local authorities informed that At least 20 confirmed cases in Heihe have some relation with schools and kindergartens, affecting at least one primary school and two kindergartens. A local university — Heihe College — was closed after 10 close contacts were found.
Two sites of outbreaks in Hebei Province — Xinji and Shenze — were also found to have been related to schools and kindergartens. On Wednesday, Hebei found 23 new confirmed cases, 20 from Shenze county and the other three from Xinji.
The 20 confirmed cases in Shenze included students, the youngest of whom was claimed to be two years old. The other three Xinji youngsters were all 11-year-old elementary school students.
Gansu has suspended in-person lessons in 10,818 schools and kindergartens, accounting for 62 per cent of the total number of schools in the province. 2.84 million kids and 250,000 teachers were affected by the change.
All of Gansu’s universities will be managed under a closed-loop system.
Following recent breakouts of confirmed cases, 18 schools in Beijing’s Chaoyang area have also cancelled classes.
Zhang Yuexin, an expert on epidemic prevention and control, told the Global Times on Thursday that epidemic resurgences relating to schools should draw greater attention because infections of students could easily lead to transmission among communities. As young people have relatively lower vaccination rates, they could be naturally more vulnerable to the virus.
(With IANS inputs)
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