Heilongjiang brings latest outbreak under control

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 in Heilongjiang province has been basically controlled and the risk of spread outside the province has been nearly eliminated, experts said on Thursday.

Since the first case in the latest outbreak was reported on Sept 20, Heilongjiang has recorded 89 locally transmitted confirmed cases and seven asymptomatic carriers, Ge Hong, deputy director of the provincial Health Commission, said at a news conference on Thursday.

"There were no related cases reported outside Heilongjiang, no cross-infection at quarantine sites or in hospitals reported in the province," he said. "The risk of local spread has been basically blocked, and there is low risk to see another large-scale outbreak. The epidemic control and prevention has entered the final stage."

He said: "This round of outbreak occurred during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, which made it difficult to prevent and control the epidemic due to the large flow of people and the high concentration of people." "It originated in Xinglong town of Bayan county, a rural area with relatively weak regional prevention and control capacity."

"However, due to the great efforts of the whole province, we basically controlled the epidemic within about two weeks," he said.

As of Wednesday, the province's capital city Harbin had completed six rounds of nucleic acid tests and collected around 48.21 million samples and the city of Suihua gathered 2,595,000 samples during its five rounds tests.

The province saw 12 patients, namely, 11 confirmed cases and one asymptomatic carrier recovered and discharged from the hospital.

They have been transported to a designated hospital to receive medical observation and rehabilitation treatment.

The other 84 patients are receiving medical treatment in the hospital and are in stable condition.