Coronavirus in China. Authorities are investigating a new infection hotspot

The new asymptomatic coronavirus infections detected in Xinjiang’s Kashgar Prefecture are “a small, sporadic outbreak” that will not trigger a pandemic recurrence in the country, the Chinese tabloid Global Times said on Monday, citing a disease control expert.

Medical services reported on Sunday 137 asymptomatic infections in Kashgar – the largest daily record of such cases in China in almost seven months. The authorities launched a campaign of mass screening tests and searching for contacts of infected people. Experts do not rule out that there will be more infections detected.

However, former deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control (CCDC) Yang Gonghuan said in an interview with the Global Times that the occasional detection of new disease clusters in the country is not surprising. Outbreaks like these can occur at any time, but China will not go through a major epidemic again like it did in Wuhan – He said.

If Kashgar takes proper quarantine measures, the outbreak there will be manageable – says a Chinese expert. In his opinion The new outbreak in Xinjiang may be associated with the autumn cooling, as the cold weather may favor the spread of the coronavirus.

As part of general tests in Kashgar, the authorities intend to examine a total of about 4.75 million inhabitants by Tuesday. By Sunday afternoon, samples had already been taken from 2.8 million people.

In Beijing, local authorities are contacting people who have recently been to Xinjiang and advising against traveling to the region, the South China Morning Post reported.

In mainland China, the largest wave of cases was in the spring, but the country has since experienced a number of smaller, local outbreaks. One of them was detected in Xinjiang in mid-July.

In other parts of China, inhabitants are gradually forgetting about social distancing, flocking to parks, cinemas, bars and restaurants, and less and less wearing protective masks.. Business is going more or less like it was before Covid-19. Now we just need the vaccine, then things can really get back to normal An employee of one of the live music bars in Beijing told Reuters.

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