Beijing: As part of a “people’s war” to stamp out one of the country’s largest outbreak in months, a Covid-affected Chinese city is promising thousands of dollars to anyone who can help trace the source of it’s latest outbreak.
China reported 43 local cases on Tuesday, as a part of a Delta-driven spike that has spread to 20 provinces and areas in the last three weeks, keeping fresh case numbers in the double digits.
As most countries ease Covid restrictions, Beijing officials have froze on their zero-Covid policy, which has resulted in low infection rates due to stringent border closures, targeted lockdowns, and lengthy quarantines. However, the latest outbreak has spread to more than 40 places, prompting officials in Heihe, a northern city on the Russian border, to offer a prize of 100,000 yuan ($15,500) for information.
The city government said in a notice, “In order to uncover the source of this virus outbreak as soon as possible and find out the chain of transmission, it is necessary to wage a people’s war of epidemic prevention and control.” Smuggling, illegal hunting, and cross-border fishing should all be reported immediately, according to officials, and consumers who buy foreign items online should “immediately sterilise” them and turn them in for testing.