Epidemic prevention and control in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, has entered a critical stage, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said during her inspection in the city amid a COVID-19 surge that recorded 100 new confirmed cases in the past two days, characterized by clusters of companies, families and schools in the city.
Dalian, which shoulders nearly one-third of the storage of cold-chain goods in China and also the largest port of cold-chain aquatic product imports, reported another 60 new locally transmitted cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 235 in the city with 54 more silent carriers.
Of the newly infected cases on Saturday, most are from the city's Zhuanghe region where the first case of the fresh outbreak was identified to be an employee working at a local cold-chain storage warehouse. They are mainly employees from a local food company and students at local middle schools or colleges.
Dalian health authorities noted on Sunday that the latest caseload spike is characterized by clusters of companies, families and schools, with a high viral load, rapid transmissions.
Local authorities updated the city's risk regions on Sunday, identifying two high-risk regions and 31 medium-risk regions in the city.
Campus courses in all middle and primary schools in the city's Zhuanghe region will be moved to online starting from Sunday, and 10 boarding schools have been put under closed-loop management.
The Chinese mainland on Sunday reported 32 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Monday.
Of the new local cases, 25 were reported in Liaoning, three in Henan, two in Heilongjiang, and one each in Hebei and Yunnan.
Also reported were 20 new imported cases, according to the commission.
Two new suspected cases arriving from outside the mainland were reported in Shanghai on Sunday, said the commission.
No new deaths related to COVID-19 were reported on Sunday, it added.