Following the sporadic Covid-19 outbreaks and rapid increase in infections, China has recorded its first coronavirus-related death since May 2020.
FOLLOWING sporadic Covid-19 outbreaks and rapid increase in infection cases, China has recorded its first coronavirus-related death since May 2020.
The death marks China’s 4,635th case and reports show the patient was from the Hebei province, where there has been a resurgence of the virus since the start of January.
Since the flare-up, authorities in various cities, including Shijiazhuang, Xingtai City and Beijing, have imposed lockdown restrictions to help curb the spread.
The latest Covid-19 infection statistics reported by the Chinese health commission show that 81 of the new 138 confirmed cases are from Hebei province, and 43 from Heilongjiang province.
With the new lockdown restrictions, anyone travelling to Beijing from Hebei for work must provide a negative coronavirus test and proof of employment.
Amid the outbreak, China is in full swing with its national vaccination programme to vaccinate 50 million residents by mid-February using its home-grown vaccine created by Sinopharm.
“China will expand the target population for Covid-19 vaccination to include elderly people aged over 60 years old,” said Wang Bin, an official with the National Health Commission (NHC).
“The expansion is due to increasing data from clinical research on vaccines, a growing supply of vaccines and the need to better control the outbreak.
“The current vaccination campaign covers people aged 18 to 59 who are at a higher risk of infection and transmission,” he said.
Meanwhile, a team of scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) have arrived in Wuhan to probe the origins of the global pandemic.
The WHO experts will be quarantined for two weeks before starting their investigation.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
