Vice-premier urges rapid response to curb outbreak

Chinese Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan stressed the importance of taking immediate action to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Chongqing during an inspection in the city on Monday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Sun urged immediate, resolute and decisive measures to cut off the transmission chain and contain the virus more quickly to shield economic and social development and people's well-being to the greatest possible extent.

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in Chongqing has spread widely. Although prevention and control work led by the local government has achieved positive results, the epidemic remains complex and grave, with infections still on the rise, Xinhua reported.

The city reported 178 new confirmed local cases and 6,157 new asymptomatic carriers on Monday, the municipal Heath Commission said on Tuesday.

Chongqing reported 5,195 new cases in the city's central urban districts on Sunday. Infections via community transmission totaled 571, or 10.9 percent of the cases, according to the commission's Deputy Director Li Pan at a news conference on Monday.

Li said the policy of coordination, which was implemented in the central urban districts 10 days ago, has helped bring down the proportion of new cases via community transmission, but the overall number of infections is still rising.

Li said an analysis found that in the central urban area more than 60 percent of infections in places with high infection risks and via community transmission involve people who live in the same building, neighborhood or community, indicating a loose control.

On Sunday, the city's prevention and control headquarters launched a campaign to contain community transmission in the central areas. Residents have been urged to stay put and avoid in-person gatherings, which could result in cross-infections.

Construction of another makeshift hospital in Cuntan Port in the city's Jiangbei district — designed to have more than 16,000 beds — began on Friday.