HONG KONG—Chinese health authorities have ramped up their efforts to contain a resurgence of coronavirus cases, as the country faces its worst flare-up since the pandemic first exploded there early last year.
Cities across the northern provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang and Jilin have built temporary quarantine facilities, imposed lockdown measures on millions of residents and rolled out rounds of citywide testing.
Armies of volunteers clad in protective gear, meanwhile, have fanned out across the affected areas, disinfecting empty streets and shops, according to state-media reports.
On Wednesday, Beijing city’s health officials said they had discovered the more-contagious U.K. variant of the virus in the samples of two patients who tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday.
Since the current wave of cases emerged in mid-December, health authorities have found around 1,500 symptomatic cases of Covid-19, the majority of which were local infections. China tallies both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases but includes only the former in its official count.