Guangzhou Hit with Its Most Complicated Outbreak Ever

By Lars James Hamer, November 7, 2022

Today, November 7, 2022, Guangzhou announced 1,935 new cases of COVID-19, a new record for the number of daily cases ever recorded in the city.

In Guangzhou, cases have been steadily rising since October 22, accumulating a total of 3,732 cases, 2,370 of which were in the city’s Haizhu district.

On November 4, 746 infections were reported, with the vast majority once again being contained in Haizhu district.

The following day, Saturday, November 5, cases spiked above 1,000 (1,325 in total, 1,253 of which were in Haizhu district).

Despite the significant rise in cases reported today, 94% (1,880) of the 1,935 infections were all confined to Haizhu district, hopefully signaling that the virus will stay within that area.

However, the continuous rise in cases suggests that there are still hidden transmission chains in the city, according to China Daily.

Haizhu has been in a district-wide lockdown since Saturday. The lockdown was originally scheduled for three days but given the rising number of infections, it has now been extended until midnight on November 11.

Across the Chinese mainland, a total of 5,496 cases were reported on November 7, a 6-month high. However this strain of the omicron variant isn’t as serious as those that preceded it, with 5,074 patients being confirmed as asymptomatic.

In Guangzhou, 1,813 of today’s infections were also asymptomatic, authorities in the city of nearly 19 million people have said.

Furthermore, no deaths from COVID-19 have been reported today, meaning that the total number of fatalities in China from the respiratory disease since 2020 remains at 5,226.

As of November 6, 2022, China has reported a total of 264,123 COVID-19 symptomatic infections.

Elsewhere in COVID news, a report suggests that in China’s first- and second-tier cities, the total cost of implementing normalized nucleic acid testing has reached about RMB1.7 trillion per year – accounting for around 1.3% of China’s GDP.

[Cover image via Weibo]