Chinese port city faces spike in COVID cases

An expanding COVID-19 cluster in China’s Dalian has prompted national authorities to restrict outbound travel, cut offline school classes, and close some cultural sites in the port city in an effort to contain the outbreak.

On Thursday, Dalian recorded 52 locally transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms, more than twice of Wednesday’s 21 new cases. The tallied number was also higher than the cases from any other Chinese cities affected by the nationwide outbreak since mid-October.

China has recorded a total of 1,149 local cases between October 17 and November 11. Despite having fewer cases compared to other countries, Chinese authorities have deployed resources to curb the flare-up. Beijing is not expected to change its zero-tolerance policy in the foreseeable future.

On Thursday, local transportation officials reported a 96.5% decline in the number of people traveling out of Dalian, putting the count to 918 per day on average. The city has put up restrictive measures on public transport and warned its 7.5 million residents not to leave Dalian unless necessary.