COVID-19 cluster infections in Chinese universities continue to rise amid new semester

Beijing [China], September 12 : A new COVID-19 cluster outbreak continues to rise in the universities across the Chinese mainland, just as students began their new semester and are about to enjoy their three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
The latest COVID-19 outbreak has appeared in 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions since September 1. The capital city detected 14 new COVID-19 confirmed cases among quarantined individuals between 12 am and 3 pm on Sunday, 13 of whom are university students, Global Times reported.
Six new COVID-19 cases were confirmed at the Communication University of China (CUC) in Chaoyang district from 3 pm on Saturday to 3 pm on Sunday, bringing the total number to 13 since 12 am on Saturday.
Another 151 teachers and students of the university were transferred to a centralized isolation point on Sunday, said Li Zhong, deputy Party secretary of the CUC, at the press conference.
On Saturday, eight confirmed local cases were reported from 0:00 to 15:00 pm, with seven of the new cases being students on the campus of the CUC, local authorities said.
In another university, the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) 41 infections were reported as of Friday, Global Times reported.
The Deputy Director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Liu Xiaofeng said, "It is a critical period for schools to deal with the epidemic on campus."
He urged schools to strengthen the management of epidemic prevention work, including vaccination for returned students, implementing the standardized management of health monitoring stations on campus and making sure that nucleic acid testing, cleaning and disinfection of public bathrooms, laundry rooms, stair handrails, door handles, elevator keys and public articles are conducted in a timely manner.
Meanwhile, China's Xinjiang province is hit with limited options due to a gruelling and week-long COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
Chris Buckley, writing in The New York Times (NYT) said that Yining, a city in the Xinjiang region of far-western China chafing under a month-long pandemic shut down due to a lack of food, medicine and other crucial supplies.
The Yining residents called for help over limited food, difficulty getting medicines and drastic shortages of sanitary pads for women.
People in the city of 600,000 have been commanded to stay in their homes since early August, forcing many to rely largely on neighbourhood officials to deliver supplies.
Some of the residents said that food deliveries had been reduced to a monotonous diet of rice, naan or instant noodles. A resident named Azad said there had been nothing but instant noodles for two weeks, which he could no longer face more than twice a day.
Another city with a 21-million population, Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, is also under lockdown after around 500 cases were reported last week.
More than 6 million cases of COVID-19 infection have been registered since the beginning of the pandemic in mainland China, with 24,806 related deaths.
Parts of China have reported a sudden surge in the COVID-19 virus and the outbreak of the fifth wave has forced the citizens to once again face the authoritarian government's unending restrictions. The recurring outbreak of rampant infection in the country, despite China's strong measures, speaks of the failure of Xi Jinping's so-called "zero-COVID policy" which has upended daily life and dealt a heavy blow to the slowing economy.