Work Begins on Giant Quarantine Facility in City at Center of New Outbreak

What’s new: Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei province and the latest Covid-19 hotspot in the country, is building a makeshift quarantine center. The move is the latest measure to halt the recent local outbreak, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The quarantine center, currently under construction, will be located in Zhengding county (正定县), and will cover the equivalent of 47 soccer fields, Xinhua reported.

The quarantine center will provide 3,000 housing units, according to state media reports.

Such large-scale medical facilities were previously constructed and used in the city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, for the isolation and treatment of patients in an effort to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.

The background: Construction of the new quarantine facility comes amid the spread of the coronavirus in the northern province.

Hebei reported Thursday the first death from the latest outbreak, which ends the country’s 272-day record of zero Covid-19 deaths. The province has so far reported a total of 463 confirmed cases and 195 asymptomatic cases in the latest outbreak.

Other provinces also reported cases linked to the Hebei outbreak, including neighboring Shanxi province, as well the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Beijing also reported one confirmed case imported from Hebei on Wednesday.

Mi Feng, the spokesperson of the National Health Commission, said that day that the virus prevention situation was complicated and severe. Mi outlined some features of the current resurgence of Covid-19 including the fact it is long-lasting, has a wide-range, and a high transmission rate among the elderly and in rural areas.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com) and editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)

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