What’s new: Two hospitals in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou closed their outpatient departments for a day on Friday, after a nurse tested positive for Covid-19.
The nurse, who works at Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine located in the city’s Yuexiu district, visited the hospital’s fever clinic Thursday and was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Friday.
The hospital said the outpatient department was closed due to “epidemic prevention and control requirements to protect the safety of patients,” without giving further details.
First Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, which is located nearby, also closed its outpatient department for a day on Friday.
What’s more: Guangzhou identified the first case in the current Covid-19 flare-up on May 21 and has recorded 64 confirmed and 15 asymptomatic cases as of Thursday. All cases were found to be a variant of the novel coronavirus first identified in India, according to local authorities.
Cai Weiping, chief infectious disease specialist at Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital, which is handling the city’s Covid cases, said in an interview with CCTV that the average incubation period for patients is about 3.2 days, shorter than last year’s average of 5.9 days.
The majority of patients are asymptomatic or have shown mild symptoms, he said, adding that the rate of severe disease seems to be lower than last year’s figure of 6.2%.
Contact reporter Cai Xuejiao (xuejiaocai@caixin.com) and editor Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com)
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