Jilin recorded 4,067 domestic COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, province vowed to cut off community spread within a week

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Mar 15, 2022 11:05 AM Updated: Mar 15, 2022 11:02 AM

Northeast China's Jilin Province recorded 3,076 domestically transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, 991 silent carriers on Tuesday. Officials said the cases haven't peaked yet and that Jilin faces a "severe and complicated situation," yet he vowed to clear transmission within communities within a week.

Zhang Li, deputy chief of Jilin Provincial health commission, said at a press conference on Tuesday that Jilin Province, with roughly 21 million people, is set to take "emergency unconventional measures" to push province-wide nucleic test. The test resources will prioritize cities of Changchun and Jilin, where the virus is rife.

A total of five makeshift hospitals have been built in Changchun and Jilin, providing 22,880 beds, said Zhang.

During a conference on Monday, Jing Junhai, the provincial Party chief, ordered to speed up construction of makeshift hospitals and conduct "high-quality" new round of nucleic acid test. The Party chief also asked to strengthen COVID-19 control in schools, where cluster infections were reported in Jilin.

Han Jun, the provincial governor said everyone in Jilin city should receive nucleic tests, all positive cases must be rounded, and all close contacts should be quarantined. He vowed to cut off the infection within residential community within a week.

A Beijing-based immunologist, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times that to reach that goal is possible but Jilin Province currently needs to accumulate enough manpower and resources to do the massive test, round patients, and enforce COVID-19 measures.

To impose virus prevention measures in a whole province is a tough task, said the immunologist, pointing out that two years ago Hubei had support from the whole country, and now Jilin Province has to make sure it has enough resources, and doesn't neglect the rural areas, where resources are scares and there is not enough manpower.

Zhang also admitted that currently Jilin's medical resources can only be sustained for two or three days and it is striving to obtain support from all sides.

Facing with such a severe situation, military region in Jilin Province dispatched 7,000 soldiers to support the COVD-19 work, and 1,200 retired military personnel in Yanbian, Jilin, volunteered to work in quarantine and test sites.

Jilin Province announced on Monday that it has purchased 12 million antigen testing kits for its residents.

The anonymous expert said that the current surge in Jilin was mainly to blame for the initial hiding of the infection, and slow response to the outbreak by some local officials.

Jilin Province sacked at least three officials, including Wang Lu, the mayor and deputy Party chief of Jilin city, Li Xin, the head of the Jiutai District of Changchun, and Gao Yutang, director of the Changchun Municipal Health Commission.

Zhang Lifeng, Party secretary of the Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology University in Jilin city, on Thursday was sacked for negligence and an ineffective response to a cluster infection that hit the university.

The city of Jilin in Jilin Province, which reported 2,601 confirmed cases on Tuesday, kicked off the ninth round of nucleic acid test on Tuesday.

Residents are forbidden from leaving the northeastern province of Jilin effective immediately, the provincial government said on Monday.