There Are COVID-19 Cases, Shanghai Limits Tourism And Reduces Public Transportation Services

Ilustrasi tes COVID-19 massal China. (Wikimedia Commons/Dancing Moon Scholar)

JAKARTA - Local COVID-19 cases in eastern China prompted Shanghai City to limit tourism activities and nearby cities to cut public transport services, as China insisted on not tolerating cluster spread.

The city of Shanghai detected three domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases with confirmed symptoms on November 25, official data from the National Health Commission (NHC) showed on Friday. The last local symptomatic infection in Shanghai was reported in August.

The new infections come just days after China overcame its biggest outbreak caused by the Delta variant, pointing to growing challenges in efforts to eliminate local clusters.

National health officials said earlier this month China's goal was not to stay at zero infections, but to ensure local clusters could be detected and contained as quickly as possible.

Shanghai has suspended travel agencies from arranging tourism involving travel between the city and other provincial-level areas.

The financial hub of 24.9 million people has closed several housing complexes deemed to be at higher risk of infection, and two local hospitals have suspended some face-to-face services to comply with COVID-19 controls.

Separately, Xuzhou City in eastern Jiangsu Province, about 9 hours' drive from Shanghai, reported one locally transmitted asymptomatic carrier for November 25, who was a close contact of the Shanghai infection. China counts asymptomatic cases separately.

The city of 9.1 million residents has suspended all three of its subway lines, cutting off some city-wide and long-distance bus services and closing several entrances on highways linking it and the surrounding area.

This includes advising residents not to leave the city unless it is urgent, while those traveling must present evidence of a negative test result within 48 hours of departure.

In addition, Xuzhou demanded a greater suspension of face-to-face public activities including concerts, sporting events and exhibitions. It also required all schools to stop their offline classes between Friday and Sunday, asking universities to tighten management on student requests to leave campus.

To note, Hangzhou City in eastern Zhejiang Province also detected two local asymptomatic infections on Nov. 25, according to NHC data.

As of November 25, mainland China had reported 98,583 confirmed cases with symptoms, including local ones and those coming from abroad. The death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.