What’s new: The resurgence of Covid-19 cases in northern China is quickly spreading to more regions.
Three passengers from the northeastern province of Jilin aboard of a train departing from Jiamusi in Heilongjiang province to Beijing tested positive for the coronavirus. The three passengers, two of whom are a couple, shared the same car in the air-conditioned train with closed windows for the more than 27 hours of the journey, Jilin health authorities said Wednesday at a press conference.
Previously, Jilin reported four asymptomatic cases Monday, two of whom were in the same train car with the three other infected passengers. Health authorities asked everyone who took the train Jan. 5 to report to local communities for testing.
Neighboring Heilongjiang province locked down 5.2 million people in the city of Suihua, which borders the provincial capital Harbin as the province reported 40 new confirmed cases Wednesday. It’s not clear whether any of them were related to the train.
The background: The train also stopped at Langfang in Hebei province, one of three cities under lockdown in the province that encircles Beijing.
Hebei provincial capital Shijiazhuang and the cities of Xingtai and Langfang with a combined population of 23 million people were locked down after the province reported 326 confirmed cases plus 234 asymptomatic cases in the latest round of outbreak as of Tuesday.
Beijing also identified a confirmed case with links to the Hebei outbreak, raising fears of further spread in the Chinese capital. The patient commuted while potentially infectious between her home in Langfang and her workplace in Beijing, local health authorities said. Beijing has continued to find new cases in a flare-up in its northeastern district of Shunyi, signaling that the virus is still spreading.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).
Related: China Locks Down 23 Million People in 3 Northern Cities
