Kashgar To Shut Schools For A Week Over Covid Scare

Kashgar city in Xinjiang region is closing schools for a week and carrying out a city-wide coronavirus test, officials said on Sunday after one person was found to have the virus that causes Covid-19.

A 17-year-old girl was found on Saturday to have the virus but no symptoms of the pandemic disease in a village in Kashgar after being tested during a regular inspection, the Xinjiang health commission said.

The mainland authorities do not consider asymptomatic cases as a confirmed Covid-19 case and the last case detected on the mainland was in Qingdao on October 14.

Xinjiang was the site of a local cluster in August, but no new cases had been found in the region since August 15.

The officials said all close contacts of the infected girl have been isolated for medical observation and local authorities are carrying out epidemiological investigations.

Kashgar has launched a nucleic acid test covering the city's 700,000 people. As of Sunday morning, more than 300,000 people had been tested and the rest would be covered within two days, the city government said in a statement.

The Kashgar government said all schools except universities will be closed through Friday but supermarkets and shopping malls will remain open to ensure sufficient supply of living materials.

The national health commission has dispatched experts on Sunday to guide coronavirus control work in Kashgar.

In the daily tally report for Saturday, the national health commission reported 15 imported coronavirus cases in the mainland, down from 28 cases the previous day. It also reported a total of 19 new asymptomatic patients in the country, down from 27 a day earlier.

As of Saturday, the mainland had reported 85,790 confirmed coronavirus cases and Covid-19 death toll stands at 4,634. (Reuters)