Fears of second wave of Covid-19 outbreak loom large in Chinese province Xinjiang

               Covid - 19 Not Going Soon

While the coronavirus epidemic is wreaking havoc across the world with over 14 million people infected worldwide, the original epicentre China may be heading toward a second wave of outbreak. Fears of an outbreak loom in China’s Xinjiang province which has now moved on to offer free coronavirus tests. Malls and hotels here have been shut and housing compounds locked down.

The local government on Saturday said that the testing will be carried out in two phases in Urumqi where China’s 13 locally-transmitted virus cases were found, Bloomberg reported. The city of has 30 confirmed cases and 41 asymptomatic carriers since it reported its first infection in five months on July 15.

Those who came in contact with the confirmed and suspected cases will be the first ones to get tested followed by residents in other housing compounds, government and civil servant in the second phase of testing.

Meanwhile, China reported 16 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, Sputnik reported citing the country’s National Health Commission said on Sunday. 13 of these are local cases while the rest are imported. China registered 42 asymptomatic coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the commission stated. Capital city Beijing, on the other hand, reported no new confirmed domestically transmitted Covid-19 cases on Saturday, as per the municipal health commission.

China, the original epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, reported its first case around December 2019. In a matter of months, the country reported a spurt in cases which went up to over 80,000. By the time Beijing said it has reached its virus peak, the infection had already travelled across the world and assumed the form of a pandemic. The World Health Organization described it as a global health crisis. Europe soon became the next epicentre with countries like Italy, Spain and the UK reporting massive rise in Covid-19 cases and fatalities. Cases also began to rise in the United States which is the worst-hit country at the moment followed by Brazil and India at the third spot.