What’s new: Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared that the latest Covid-19 outbreak in southwestern city of Chengdu is nearing an end.
Wu made the preliminary assessment in an interview Monday with the national broadcaster after the capital of Sichuan province conducted mass testing on more than 2 million residents.
He said that the national CDC has been working with local health authorities to find the source of the outbreak. “There must be a reason for the outbreak, either tied to human beings or animals, which is still under investigation, and gene sequencing has played an important role in detecting the source in a couple of previous Covid-19 outbreaks.” Wu said.
The background: The capital city of Sichuan province did not resort to a lockdown, but entered what many observers called a “wartime” mode, with mass testing after the virus reemerged last week. As of Monday, the city had reported ten local infections in the latest spike.
Peng Qinghua, the province’s party chief urged the city to “resolutely cut the disease’s chain of transmission and contain the outbreak within the minimum scale.”
Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)
