Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has identified 26 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases on Monday evening, taking the count to 164 since the first case detected on Saturday in latest outbreak.
According to local authorities, all new cases were reported in Shufu County in south Xinjiang’s Kashgar Prefecture.However, the source of infection of the first case or patient zero is still unknown. Experts say, more contact tracing is required in determining the route of transmission since the first case had no travel history. As of now, rate of transmission is high.
Authorities have raised the emergency response to highest level. All the 4.7 million residents of Kashgar are undergoing blanket nucleic acid tests.
Recently, East China’s Qingdao city experienced small outbreak, where all the 10 million people were tested. Several cities including Beijing have warned residents not to travel to Kashgar.Capital Beijing has also restricted entry of persons from Kashgar.
