Hebei reports 14 new COVID cases with village listed as high-risk

Xiaoguozhuang village in Gaocheng district of Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei province, has been listed as a high-risk area for COVID-19 from Tuesday after it reported eight new local cases that day, according to the provincial health commission.

As the only high-risk area in China, the village has reported 10 new local cases since it announced the first confirmed case on Sunday.

Its neighboring Liujiazuo village, also in Gaocheng district, and two communities in Nangong of the city of Xingtai have been categorized as medium-risk areas. Other places in the province are still low-risk areas.

Gaocheng district is known for producing lanterns that are widely used for celebrating Spring Festival, which is on Feb 12 this year.

Hebei province on Tuesday reported it had 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 30 asymptomatic ones, all locally transmitted. Eleven confirmed cases are in Shijiazhuang, and three in Xingtai. All asymptomatic cases are in Shijiazhuang.

The province has reported new local cases for three consecutive days in this new outbreak of COVID-19.

As of Tuesday morning, Hebei has 19 confirmed patients — two with severe symptoms, 15 with medium and two with mild. There are a total of 40 asymptomatic carriers under medical observation, the commission said.

The province reported four confirmed cases on Monday. Two of them are villagers from Gaocheng district. The other two are brothers in their 30s from Nangong of Xingtai. 

For targeted intervention, the county-level city of Nangong has started nucleic acid tests for all of its nearly 500,000 residents.

Shijiazhuang declared on Sunday a "wartime state" after the city reported its first case, and on Monday, Zhuolu county in Zhangjiakou city of the province also went into a "wartime state" to tighten the measures on prevention and control of the disease.