Cluster infection breaks out in China’s Wuhan, raises fears of second wave of Covid-19

The new cases have triggered fear of a second wave of infections in China, which has been gradually easing to normalcy with risk-levels downgraded across the country in recent weeks.

New cluster infections of Covid-19 have been reported from the pandemic’s first epicentre Wuhan and the northeastern Jilin province in the past 24 hours, the national health commission (NHC) said on Monday.

The new cases have triggered fear of a second wave of infections in China, which has been gradually easing to normalcy with risk-levels downgraded across the country in recent weeks.

The city of Wuhan in Hubei province reported five new cases on Monday, a day after it confirmed the first Covid-19 case since the first week of April.

Since Sunday, Wuhan reported a total of six new cases of Covid-19, all of which are from the same local community, Sanmin neighbourhood in the Dongxihu district of Wuhan, the tabloid Global Times reported on Monday.

Emergency response level has been raised in the area from low to medium on Monday and nearly 5,000 residents in the neighbourhood were expected to take nucleic acid tests to screen for the disease.

The NHC said on Monday that it had received reports of 17 new confirmed Covid-19 cases on the Chinese mainland on Sunday, of which seven were imported cases reported in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

At least 11 cases connected to a local laundry worker were reported over the weekend, according to state broadcaster CCTV, prompting the citywide lockdown of Shulan, with a population of around 6,70,000 people, in the northeastern province of Jilin.

On Monday, Shulan declared a full-scale “wartime” control mode in response to clustered infections where the confirmed cases were reported.

The citywide investigation of close contacts had traced 2005 people, 290 close contacts have been located and quarantined, state media reported.

China until Monday had reported nearly 83,000 cases of Covid-19 and 4,633 deaths.

Nearly 68,000 of those cases have been reported from Hubei, the Chinese province worst-hit in the outbreak; Wuhan has reported more than 50,000 of the cases.