Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Government China apply geofence (lockdown) total in Ruili, a small town directly adjacent to Myanmar, as a result of the fourth wave of Covid-19 transmission.
Ruili’s lockdown came into effect earlier this week. Chinese authorities have ordered residents of Ruili, a small town in Yunnan Province, to self-isolate at home for the next few days.
In addition to the stay-at-home orders, Chinese authorities have also closed all businesses and schools. However, some markets, supermarkets, pharmacies, and hospitals are still allowed to open.
The Ruili government will carry out inspections of all residents in the city. Officials also forbade residents to make “non-essential travel” until further notice.
The government also only allows one family member from each household to travel to meet their daily needs, although still with permission during the lockdown period.
Every citizen wishing to leave Ruili City must show a negative result of the coronavirus test within the last 72 hours.
“Ruili will continue to strengthen border control measures. We will crack down on illegal cross-border activities,” Ruili Communist Party chief Zhai Yulong said at a press conference on Wednesday (7/7).
The lockdown was implemented after the Yunnan government reported 15 cases of new corona infections on Tuesday (6/7). All of the cases are in Ruili and are from local transmissions.
Of the 15 cases of corona, three of them are Chinese nationals and the rest are citizens of Myanmar, including two children.
So far, seven of the 15 Covid-19 cases have very similar genome sequences to the Delta variant. The city of Ruili also recorded three cases of Covid-19 in a row on July 4 and 5.
This lockdown is the second time in Ruili City in the last four months due to imported corona cases.
The Covid-19 outbreak in Ruili is considered to be one of the challenges for the Chinese government. The city of 210,000 residents is a major transit point linking China with Muse City in Myanmar. Muse is one of the hotspots of unrest since the military coup took place on February 1.
The Chinese government is also worried that Ruili will become one of the destinations for Myanmar refugees to escape the unrest in their country.
Apart from Ruili, Yunnan Province also reported two new asymptomatic Covid-19 infections on Tuesday (6/7), consisting of one Chinese and one Myanmar citizen.
One asymptomatic case of Covid-19 was also detected in China in early June. The patient is known to have just returned from Myanmar.
The latest outbreak of Covid-19 also briefly attacked the southern Guangdong Province in May to June, dominated by cases of the Delta variant.
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