FOLLOW US

China has intensified efforts to curb a resurgence of COVID-19 cases after the National Health Commission discovered multiple local transmissions in three cities across the country.

Chinese officials have called for unrelenting efforts to maintain COVID-19 containment measures including testing millions of people, imposing lockdowns, and closing down schools.

The National Health Commission has recorded two new locally transmitted cases in Shanghai over the last 24 hours. This brings the total figure of cases to seven since Friday. China, where the COVID-19 started, has recorded 86,442 total cases and 4,634 deaths as of this writing.

China has vaccinated about one million people against COVID-19

The spike of infections comes on the heels of a report that a state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical firm developed a  COVID-19 vaccine and has been administered to about a million people under the government's emergency use scheme.

The vaccine, named CoronaVac, was developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical producer Sinovac Biotech.

It was tested in randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials involving more than 700 healthy adults aged 18 to 59.

Scaling up measures to stem COVID-19

Local authorities have been urged to ramp up epidemic monitoring and information reporting amid the resurgence of reported infections.

Chinese cities Tianjin, Shanghai, and Manzhouli have scaled up measures to contain COVID-19 as temperatures drop in the country.

Other countries, including the United States, have seen a surge in the daily COVID-19 tally due to the cold weather. As of this posting, the U.S. has recorded 12.3 million coronavirus cases and 257,000 deaths.

Experts said recent flare-ups in China showed there is still a risk of the virus returning.

China has resorted to a heavy approach every time new cases of local transmission are reported. Schools and hospitals are closed down, residential communities undergo restrictive lockdowns, and millions are tested to prevent a further spike.