Millions of people were lining up Wednesday in sub-zero temperatures to receive a second round of coronavirus tests in a city south of Beijing, the heart of China’s most serious latest outbreak of COVID-19.
The National Health Commission announced on Wednesday that another 90 confirmed cases had been reported in Hebei province, whose capital Shijiazhuang has accounted for the vast majority of recent cases.
Another 16 cases were reported in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and one in the northern province of Shanxi.
China, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, had largely contained domestic spread of the virus and the new outbreaks come even as authorities push to vaccinate 50 million people by the middle February.
The Hebei outbreak is of particular concern because of the province’s close proximity to Beijing.
Travel to and from three cities, Shijiazhuang, Xingtai and Langfang, has been suspended and residents of some communities have been told to stay home for the next week.
