Guangzhou sees slowdown in new cases

The rapid upward trend of the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, has been initially stopped, with daily new infections declining slowly, according to a local health official.

"Hardest-hit Haizhu district still reported a large number of new infections. However, the number of newly infected people in the district's Kanglu, Datang and Longtan areas, the epicenter of the current outbreak, has steadily declined," Zhang Yi, deputy director and spokeswoman of Guangzhou Health Commission, said on Friday.

Guangzhou reported 7,524 new infections on Thursday, of which 89 were found at community level, without any patients in severe or critical condition according to local health authorities.

In the latest outbreak, the city reported its highest level of new infections in a single day on Nov 17, with 255 locally transmitted confirmed cases and 8,989 asymptomatic carriers.

Outside the epicenter, the risk of transmission in some areas like Tuhua village of Huazhou sub-district is still high.

After implementation of strengthened prevention and control measures in Baiyun district, social activities, business and production in the district would resume in an orderly manner as the number of new infections at community level in the area has continued to decline daily.

A five-day project of prevention and control against the pandemic ended in Baiyun on Friday, which limited mobility of people and public transportation.

"In some sub-districts, where there are no reports of new infections for three consecutive days, restrictions of flow of people will be lifted and business and production will resume," Zhang said.

Baiyun reported 71 new infections on Thursday, the lowest level since Nov 15, of which only six were found at community level, according to Wang Xiaojie, deputy district head.

In response to recent claims of inaccuracy of nucleic acid test results for some local residents, Zhang said regulatory authorities had launched special investigations into testing institutions to carry out quality control monitoring.

"Such institutions will be severely punished if they are found to have violated laws and regulations," she said.

On behalf of the local epidemic prevention and control headquarters, Zhu Xiaoyi, deputy director of the local publicity authority, said during the press conference Guangzhou had no arrangements or plans for a lockdown of the city.