China's Harbin ramps up efforts to curb COVID-19 resurgence

HARBIN, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has been on high alert after new local COVID-19 infections were reported on Tuesday.

Heilongjiang Province had reported eight confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases by Wednesday noon, all in Harbin, the provincial health commission said.

Harbin, with a population of more than 10 million, launched citywide nucleic acid testing on Tuesday afternoon and plans to complete the campaign by the end of Thursday, according to the city's COVID-19 prevention and control headquarters.

The headquarters encouraged local residents to stay put and avoid gathering to reduce the risk of infection.

Harbin has tightened curbs by suspending commercial operations in relatively confined spaces and private clinics and limiting the number of visitors to local tourist sites to 50 percent of the capacity.

Harbin Taiping International Airport said those who want to leave must provide a negative nucleic acid test result issued within 48 hours before their departure.