Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
AsiaWire
This is the Chinese border city currently on a Wuhan-style lockdown and where residents can only leave their homes once every three days with a written permit.
Suifenhe, in China’s north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, banned gatherings and stopped all forms of non-essential activity at 6am Beijing time on 8th April, the same day former COVID-19 epicentre Wuhan lifted its draconian restrictions after 76 days.
The strict lockdown measures were to be put in place provisionally until today (13th April), but the emergency policy has now been extended indefinitely following a worrying surge of imported patients, including many asymptomatic individuals.
Gated communities are now under closed management like in Wuhan, with each household allowed to send just one representative to purchase essential goods once every three days.
Residential district entry points are manned by health workers, who stamp permits, record names and take temperatures.
The city of 70,000 borders Pogranichny in Russia’s south-eastern Primorsky Krai, and is on the front line of a second wave of coronavirus cases as Chinese nationals flood back into China.
AsiaWire
On Saturday (11th April), China’s National Health Commission reported 97 imported infections – the highest single-day figure – bringing the category total to 1,280.
According to data by Johns Hopkins University, China has now reported 83,135 cases, including 3,343 deaths.
Heilongjiang, together with the province of Jilin and autonomous region Inner Mongolia, forms part of a now shut 2,670-mile land border between China and Russia.
Suifenhe Port saw an influx of coronavirus cases before its lockdown due to its proximity to the major Russian port city Vladivostok.
Chinese officials said desperate citizens were flying across the entire width of Russia in order to board a bus back into the country using what was dubbed the ‘Moscow-Vladivostok-Suifenhe route’.
With Vladivostok all but locked down too, officials are warning its citizens not to use Suifenhe Port or risk being fined up to 1 million RUB (10,905 GBP) by Russian authorities.
Meanwhile, Saturday also saw the opening of Suifenhe’s 600-bed field hospital – about 7 miles from the city centre – which will be used to isolate asymptomatic patients.
Workers converted it from a 13-storey office block in a matter of days as a team of 24 volunteer medics, who also assisted in Wuhan, arrived in the city on Sunday (12th April).
Another field hospital is being constructed in Manzhouli, in Inner Mongolia, which is China’s largest border crossing with Russia.
Before the Manzhouli checkpoint was closed, its health officials reported its testing and quarantine capacity had been stretched “beyond limit”.
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