Authorities in Xinjiang are implementing new lockdowns in response to a coronavirus outbreak thought to have originated with Chinese language vacationers who visited the western area’s Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, native officers mentioned.
After Chinese language media reported that the variety of COVID-19 infections within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area had begun to rise, authorities in Ghulja (in Chinese language, Yining) and different city areas ordered residents to quarantine, the sources mentioned.
The variety of contaminated folks in Xinjiang rose to 274 from July 31 to the top of the primary week of August, in keeping with an Aug. 7 report on Tengritagh (Tianshan), the official web site of the Xinjiang authorities. The brand new variant of the virus was first detected within the Ili Kazakh (Yili Hasake) Autonomous Prefecture, the place Ghulja is positioned, and unfold broadly from there.
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, authorities have divided Xinjiang into 45 high-risk areas, 34 medium-risk areas and 9 low-risk areas, and applied quarantine measures at totally different ranges, the report mentioned. These areas embody the cities of Urumqi (in Chinese language, Wulumuqi), Ghulja (Yining), Aksu (Akesu), Kumul (Hami), Chochek (Tacheng), Bortala (Bole), and Kashgar (Kashi).
Chinese language authorities officers informed reporters at a press convention in Urumqi on Aug. 8 that there have been 34 contaminated folks in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, which is within the northern a part of Xinjiang, however they didn’t say how and the place they caught the extremely contagious respiratory virus.
A neighborhood official mentioned that the brand new infections had been thought to have been introduced by Chinese language vacationers from Gansu province, and the primary viral outbreak in Ghulja was present in Uchon Dungan village.
A Chinese language authorities official in Samyuzi village informed RFA that quarantine measures have been applied in his village, and that residents are prohibited from going outdoors.
A safety official in Ghulja’s Mazar village mentioned the epidemic in Ghulja was first detected in Mai village, also called the Uchon Dungan village, and that the virus was unfold by Chinese language vacationers from Gansu province.
The official, who declined to provide his identify for security causes, additionally mentioned that he and others now had been busy with quarantine-related work and that there have been 5 contaminated residents within the village, who ate in one of many similar eating places the place the Chinese language vacationers ate.
“They’re being handled now,” he mentioned. “They received contaminated whereas they had been consuming with some Chinese language vacationers from China correct. They received the virus from these vacationers. Those who received contaminated had been [ethnic] Hui and Dungan [Chinese Muslims].”
“The federal government checked all of the individuals who went to eat in that restaurant and in addition the place these Chinese language vacationers went whereas they had been touring right here,” he mentioned. “We heard that the Chinese language vacationers got here from Gansu province.”
The village safety officer additionally mentioned there have been two contaminated folks in Borichi hamlet of Yengitam village, who ate in the identical restaurant the place the Chinese language vacationers dined.
He informed RFA that he realized in regards to the native COVID-19 infections from different neighborhood officers on the Chinese language instant-messaging platform WeChat, however that he didn’t know the place or how the contaminated folks had been being dealt with as a result of data was not handed on to lower-level officers like him.
“In addition they went to the identical restaurant with these Chinese language vacationers,” he mentioned.
Two of the contaminated residents of Uchon Dungan village had been renovating their homes and acquired some building supplies in Chinese language provinces, he added.
Uchon Dungan village residents haven’t been allowed outdoors for a number of days and are performing COVID-19 checks at residence, the village safety official mentioned.
When COVID-19 first sprang up in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, Uyghur and Kazakh residents in Xinjiang had been more and more being confined to “re-education” camps. They’ve since been subjected to lockdowns throughout native coronavirus outbreaks.
At the moment, residents mentioned that authorities had been testing unknown medicine on them, in keeping with an earlier RFA report.
Ghulja metropolis was additionally locked down because of a rising variety of COVID-19 circumstances in late 2021. Determined residents wanting meals had been compelled to complain to authorities regardless of official warnings to maintain quiet, sources informed RFA on the time.
In late January, Chinese language authorities well being officers issued a press release about new COVID-19 infections in Qorghas (Huocheng) county, positioned between Ghulja and the border to Kazakhstan, in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, and mentioned a lockdown had been applied as a measure to curb the unfold of virus.
COVID circumstances in Tibet
In the meantime, neighboring Tibet Autonomous Area (TAR) reported 4 COVID-19 infections on Aug. 7, the primary signal of the virus within the area since a single case was discovered at the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020.
Asymptomatic infections had been detected in 4 vacationers between the ages of 47 and 61 from Ngari prefecture, in keeping with native Chinese language well being authorities.
Additionally on Aug. 7, 18 folks examined optimistic for the coronavirus in Tibet’s capital Lhasa — the youngest being 3 years outdated and the oldest 76 — although solely two folks within the group had been symptomatic, the TAR authorities’s report mentioned. All of them had traveled from Shigatse to Lhasa by practice earlier this month.
The members of the group and individuals who had contact with them are in quarantine for statement.
“COVID has unfold to Lhasa now, and there are 18 [people] who’ve examined optimistic for it,” mentioned a Tibetan supply who declined to be recognized. “There was loads of commotion within the metropolis since yesterday because the variety of COVID circumstances rises. Shops are crowded with panicked buyers making an attempt to purchase important items and facemasks.”
The supply mentioned he believed the precise variety of infections within the space to be increased than what Chinese language well being officers reported.
“[T]he quantity is prone to rise within the coming days,” he mentioned.
After the circumstances emerged, officers in Shigatse, Tibet’s second-largest metropolis with a inhabitants of about 800,000 folks, imposed three days of restrictions, throughout which individuals had been banned from getting into or leaving town and numerous public venues, group occasions had been canceled, and a conventional sports activities occasion scheduled to happen on Aug. 8 was postponed.
Areas are being locked down, and mass testing is beneath manner in Lhasa and different cities, and authorities have despatched notices to some workplaces and fogeys of schoolchildren to not journey.
The TAR Folks’s Hospital in Lhasa has stopped seeing out-patients due to the rising variety of COVID-19 circumstances, the report mentioned.
Spiritual actions and associated gatherings and pilgrimages to Tibetan Buddhist websites have been suspended, in keeping with an advisory issued by the Lhasa Buddhist Affiliation on Aug. 8.
Moreover, Lhasa residents had been directed to attenuate their circumambulations across the Bharkor and Potala Palace to keep away from big crowds.
“The Chinese language authorities has began imposing COVID-related restrictions in Lhasa and prompting folks to get COVID checks,” mentioned a Tibetan who declined to be named in order to talk freely.
Vacationers and guests to pilgrimage websites additionally had been being restricted, the supply added.
Translated by RFA Uyghur and by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
