Officials punished as China logs highest daily Covid cases

China is facing another Coronavirus outbreak. On Thursday, Transport services were cut off to a city of 11 million people near Beijing as local officials were reprimanded for a Covid-19 outbreak that pushed China’s new infections to the highest single-day tally since July. A recent outbreak in northern Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, has seen cases spike and prompted mass testing, school closures and suspension of travel links to the province.

According to National Health Commission, 51 new cses plus another 69 asymptomatic cases.were reported on Thursday in Hebai. Many inbound and outbound flights to the city of Shijiazhuang were cancelled by Thursday afternoon and trains suspended from leaving Shijiazhuang station. Major highways leading into Shijiazhuang, around 300 kilometres  south of Beijing, have been closed and inter-city bus travel halted.

The  Global Times reported that the city was in “de facto lockdown” due to the large-scale suspension of transport services. Three officials from Shijiazhuang’s Gaocheng district -- the epicentre of the latest outbreak -- were reprimanded for their handling of the outbreak, the local disciplinary commission said. The officials had allowed a woman who had tested positive to leave the area, the commission claimed. Gaocheng district has been declared high risk and sealed off, and authorities said tens of thousands have already been tested for the virus. There were 63 new Covid-19 infections in mainland China on Thursday, including 11 imported cases and one other domestic case in the northeast.