China: COVID scourge continues in Dandong

Beijing [China], June 26 : With sporadic COVID-19 cases in Dandong in northeast China's Liaoning province, experts have painted a grim scenario for the continuing COVID mayhem in the country.
Dandong reported seven new local asymptomatic COVID-19 cases on Saturday, after which the total positive case touched 264.
Meanwhile, the city's epidemic prevention and control headquarters denied the rumours on Saturday that Dandong would be locked down from Saturday, Global Times reported.
Looking at the cases, Liu Jinde, a medical expert from the city's epidemic prevention and control headquarters and director of the infectious disease department of Dandong Central Hospital said that Omicron BA.2.3. has stronger variability and transmission capability than previous variants, sporadic cases will continue to be reported for a longer period of time
The risk of a large-scale rebound of the epidemic still exists since most of the sporadic cases are spreading from unknown sources, making the epidemic prevention situation grim and complex, explained Liu Yang, another expert from the city's epidemic prevention and control headquarters and deputy director of Dandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, the residents in the preventive area were asked to take two nucleic acid tests every week and residents in downtown areas have to take nucleic acid testing every the other day. While people and residents in lockdown and control zones were directed to take testing once every day, reported Global Times.
Meanwhile, China reported two locally-transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, which were in Beijing and Guangdong respectively, the National Health Commission said Sunday.
Besides this, a day earlier, Chinese authorities locked down several residential buildings in Macau to contain the increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
The city on Friday reported 39 fresh cases of the infections, bringing the total tally for the recent outbreak to 149, with around a dozen buildings locked down and residents banned from leaving, China Daily reported citing a statement from the local government.
It said that more than 5,000 people in the city are in quarantine, China Daily reported.
Besides, the city also extended the restriction on the closure of bars, cinemas, hair salons and outdoor parks from Thursday.
Macao is testing its more than 600,000 residents for the coronavirus for a second time this week, China Daily reported.
Meanwhile, it was reported that China-manufactured vaccines have turned out ineffective, making already-vaccinated people prone to new infections. The helpless Beijing government now has warned of an "explosive" COVID-19 outbreak.
A Chinese study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal has shown that Chinese vaccines were unable to detect Omicron sub-variants, reported Asian Lite International.
In wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, Chinese authorities have tried every possible measure including the controversial zero-covid policy to bring the viral transmission down. But everything is in vain. The number of cases is rising at a high rate, crippling normal life in China.
Around 400 million people in China are affected, which amounts to over a quarter of the country's population. As many as 45 cities including the financial hub of Shanghai were placed under strict lockdown in recent times in the wake of Chinese vaccines' failure to tame the coronavirus.