COVID-19 cases on the rise in China as Beijing, several provinces continue to report spike
Beijing (PTI): Authorities in the Chinese capital are ramping up measures like testing and restricting hotel bookings as the total number of coronavirus cases climbed to nine on Saturday, while other parts of the country reported 38 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, according to the National Health Commission.
Five persons who tested positive in Beijing had travelled to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Shanxi Province from Oct. 12 to Oct. 15, and returned to Beijing on Oct. 16.
Another person was a close contact, according to the municipal health commission.
This is in addition to the 32 cases reported nationwide on Friday.
The spike has prompted health officials in Beijing and other provinces to step up with measures like testing, isolation of communities, cancelling hotel bookings, and the use of sanitisers and masks.
The current spike in cases has been attributed to an elderly couple from Shanghai who flew to several cities including the tourist city of Xian, and tested positive for COVID-19, sending officials on a leather hunt to trace scores of people who came in contact with them.
Within three days of an announcement that the couple had tested positive in Xian on Saturday, hundreds of close contacts of the couple and their five travel companions, who later tested positive, had been identified.
During this period, several cities had rolled out mass testing, a land port stopped operating and popular locations visited by the group were closed for disinfection, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Such cases causing periodic outbreaks presents considerable logistical and economic challenges to China despite administering vaccines to three quarters of its population.
On Saturday, China said more than 2.243 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the country so far.
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Will fight those who installed 'fake' Parashurama statue: Karkala Congress leader
Karkala: Town Municipality member and Congress spokesperson Shubhada Rao has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of duping citizens by installing a fibre glass statue of warrior-sage Parashurama at the new theme park in Karkala despite claiming that a bronze statue would be installed there.
Addressing a meeting held at the Bailuru Marigudi Hall on Saturday by the Karkala Parashurama Theme Park Welfare Committee demanding the installation of a bronze statue of the sage at the new park on the Umikal hills at Bailuru town, Rao clarified that the Congress had never opposed the development of the theme park or the installation of a statue of Parashurama at the park, but had expressed dissatisfaction at the BJP replacing the bronze statue meant to be used at the park with a fibre glass statue. He added that Congress aimed to unveil the truth regarding the statue.
Calling Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar's claims about the support of 65 legislators to him whom he could bring to the Parashurama hill as a bluff, Rao said that he would meet the legislator in Bengaluru itself with documentary proof to show that the statue was 'fake'. He also challenged Sunil Kumar to face the truth about the theme park.
A video containing information on the theme park, the statue, the correspondence between the government and the district administration as well as the gram panchayat, in addition to the court order was presented at the meeting.
