22 Million People Locked Down in Hebei Province, China... Serious COVID-19 Situation

Prohibition of Resident and Vehicle Movement

Amid China's emergency due to the resurgence of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), medical staff are conducting COVID-19 tests on residents in the basement of a residential complex in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, on the 12th. In Shijiazhuang, a major city with a population of 11 million near the capital Beijing, health authorities have locked down certain areas and are conducting large-scale testing after hundreds recently tested positive for COVID-19.

Hebei Province, adjacent to the capital Beijing, has been completely locked down due to concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Hebei Province has a population of 22 million. This shows how severe the COVID-19 situation in Hebei Province has become recently.

According to Xinhua News Agency on the 12th, the Chinese government has imposed a full lockdown on Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei with a population of 11 million where many COVID-19 cases have been reported, as well as Xingtai City and Langfang City.

Hebei Province is an administrative region surrounding Beijing, similar to how Gyeonggi Province in South Korea surrounds Seoul.

The combined population of the three cities locked down on this day, including Shijiazhuang, is 22 million, which is almost equivalent to the combined population of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province in South Korea.

Residents and vehicles in these cities are, in principle, prohibited from moving until the lockdown is lifted.

Langfang City, only a 30-minute drive from Beijing, began nucleic acid testing for all residents on the 12th, and the exits from the city are under 24-hour surveillance.

The Chinese government took the drastic measure of locking down the cities because on the morning of the 12th alone, 21 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Hebei Province, including 16 in Shijiazhuang and 5 in Xingtai. Since the 2nd, 326 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 234 asymptomatic infections have been reported in Hebei Province.

In addition to Hebei Province, Wangkui County in Heilongjiang Province, where 71 asymptomatic infections were reported over the past two days, was also fully locked down on the 12th.

Meanwhile, Wuhan City, with a population of about 9 million, which was locked down on January 23 last year due to a large-scale COVID-19 outbreak, was lifted after 76 days on April 8 of the same year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.