Spread of virus slowing as city continues third round of testing

Dalian, a coastal city in Liaoning province, is expected to soon curb the spread of the latest COVID-19 resurgence if results of the third nucleic acid test covering all residents meet expectations, the city's health authority said at a news conference on Monday.

"On Monday, from 12 am to 4 pm, three positive infectors were identified. They are among those quarantined as close contacts of the previous confirmed patients," said Zhao Zuowei, director of Dalian's health commission.

The rise of the epidemic has slowed and the overall risk is under control. There may still be a small number of positive cases in isolated hotels and sporadic cases outside, he said. As of Monday, Dalian had reported 263 confirmed cases.

On Sunday, Dalian, which has a permanent population of 7.45 million, started a third round of citywide nucleic acid testing to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Almost all the confirmed cases are in Zhuanghe, a city that is part of Dalian. An area home to a number of colleges in Zhuanghe is under closed-off management as the area reported 74 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including 65 students, as of Sunday since the latest outbreak began on Nov 4.

The college area, which boasts nearly 15,000 students and 1,000 staff members, is now in good order, Sun Gongli, acting mayor of Zhuanghe, said at a news conference on Sunday.

All the confirmed patients have been transferred to a designated hospital. More than 3,000 people who had close contact with them and were at high risk of infection were sent to hotels for quarantine.

Sun said nearly 50,000 sets of boxed meals, bottled water, and daily necessities are being sent to students who stayed at their dormitories. The colleges are also offering psychological consultations to the students.

"Most students are optimistic. In the WeChat group of our dormitory building, we even recommend movies to each other and share our impressions and views," student Luo Zihan told China Youth Daily.

Luo said they are taking classes online in their dormitories and taking nucleic acid tests every day. Volunteer workers can help them buy much-needed medicine and daily necessities.

On Nov 4, a new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 case was reported in Zhuanghe.

The first confirmed case came from a cold storage company in Zhuanghe. After that, employees of a food company in Zhuanghe, as well as students in the college district, were confirmed as being infected.

"The characteristics of clusters in companies, families and schools make the highly infectious virus spread quickly," Sun Ke, director of Dalian's disease control and prevention center, said on Sunday.

Genome sequencing of the virus shows it is the Delta variant. So far, all the strains sequenced are of the same transmission chain.

The epidemic is gradually slowing in Dalian and is generally under control as the new cases reported are mainly being detected in quarantine places, Sun said.

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan said in Dalian on Sunday that the current situation of epidemic prevention and control in the city remains complex and grim.

She stressed that it is necessary to improve the efficiency of nucleic acid testing and source tracing, plug loopholes, take precise and scientific control, and make every effort to stop the spread of the epidemic.

On Nov 4, when Dalian announced the first new case, it required residents not to leave the city for unnecessary travel and took measures to contain the spread of the epidemic.