Guangzhou reports 7,970 new COVID-19 cases

On the afternoon of November 23, Guangzhou held a COVID-19 Prevention and Control Press Conference to brief the latest epidemic situation in the city.

On November 22, Guangzhou reported 7,970 locally acquired COVID-19 cases, among which 39 were found in communities. Haizhu District reported 7,637 new infections, most of which were still detected in high-risk areas in the Kangle-Lujiang Area of Fengyang Subdistrict, Datang Area of Nanzhou Subdistrict and Longtan Area of Huazhou Subdistrict.

According to Zhang Yi, Deputy Director General and Spokesperson of the Guangzhou Health Commission, in addition to enhancing medical treatment efforts at designated hospitals, 19 makeshift hospitals went into use in Guangzhou, and 28 top-level (level-3) general hospitals have been tasked to take over makeshift hospitals based on a systematic and holistic approach with differentiated medical treatment plans. As of November 22, nearly 70,000 beds have been made available to take in asymptomatic patients and patients with mild symptoms. In total, around 11,000 people have been discharged from makeshift hospitals.

Zhang reminded residents that Guangzhou will be expecting much rain in the next few days. She hopes residents in the lockdown areas and front-line staff, as well as people responsible for ensuring the basic operation of urban public services can take proper personal precautions and practice health administration measures in line with relevant instructions.

According to Su Mingqing, Deputy Head of Haizhu District, thanks to the enhanced COVID-19 control measures Haizhu District introduced on November 13, the transmission chain of cluster outbreak has been cut off and the risk of community infections has been reduced. However, new infections in Haizhu District remain high with some fluctuations. Infections are predominantly detected in key areas, while sporadic cases have been detected in multiple places adjacent to key areas. The epidemic situation is still challenging and complex. A prudent decision has been made to extend the implementation of enhanced control measures in Haizhu District to 24:00 November 27.

Su said that Haizhu followed the 20 optimized COVID-19 control measures by either adjusting the risk level or directly lifting the temporary lockdown measures in 60 areas across 16 subdistricts including Chigang, Jianghai andc Nanshitou, etc. Currently, there are 172 high-risk areas, 16 low-risk areas and 47 temporary lockdown areas in Haizhu District.

Su emphasized that in order to cut off the transmission chain in time, if someone left the lockdown areas unauthorized and caused more infections, such person(s) shall be held legally responsible.

Su reminded residents to refrain from receiving goods delivered from lockdown areas. To avoid infections caused by the transportation of goods, residents should not order goods from inside the lockdown areas and then receive them outside the lockdown areas.

Residents are very keen to learn more about the supply of daily necessities. In response to their concern, Su said that 228,900 residents live in 16,436 buildings in the current key lockdown areas of Haizhu District. To address the challenges involved in door-to-door delivery, Haizhu District set up 150 daily necessity supply stations and checkpoints. Moreover, delivery teams have been set up in every key lockdown area.

Prof. Wang Zilian, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice President of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, said that as of November 22, the hospital had conducted more than 4.08 million PCR tests, including over 100,000 door-to-door tests in the lockdown areas of Haizhu District. They had taken over Pazhou D20 Makeshift Hospital, provided nearly 2,700 beds, and cured and discharged more than 500 people. Most of the professors of the hospital have set up online consultation rooms, where patients can make appointments and seek medical treatment via the app or Internet Hospital platform.

Li Guoxin, Vice President and Professor of Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University, said that up to now, the hospital has sent 11 medical teams totaling more than 1,200 medics to ten critical areas with severe epidemic situations. Its Huangshi Campus, Baiyun Branch currently has 500 beds for COVID-19 patients. Among the patients treated there, the oldest is 96 years old and the youngest is only 19 days old.

Nanfang Hospital ensures that the "express lane" for patients with severe or critical symptoms remains unimpeded. At present, about 2,500 hospitalized patients in the headquarter of Nanfang Hospital are not COVID-19 infections. The hospital has set up 50 online consultation rooms, providing an average of more than 2,200 appointments per day. Over 600 doctors provide patients with a one-stop service of "online consultation - online prescription - medicine delivery".

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