GUANGZHOU, capital of Guangdong Province, yesterday asked its residents not to leave the city unless necessary as a precaution against the latest COVID-19 resurgence.

The city’s headquarters on COVID-19 control and prevention also said starting today’s noon, those leaving the city must provide a negative result of nucleic acid testing done within 48 hours before departure.

The city’s Nansha District has suspended all the metro, bus, ferry and other public transportation services starting late Saturday after three residents in the district were diagnosed as confirmed COVID-19 cases and one as asymptomatic carrier Saturday.

All the newly confirmed cases and asymptomatic carrier in Nansha are family members of a local couple that was confirmed as infected cases Friday, said Xie Ming, executive deputy director of Nansha District, yesterday.

The six family members live together. Their residential building has been closed off for nucleic acid test for all residents, Xie said at a news conference yesterday.

The couple once visited a restaurant in Guangzhou’s Liwan District to have dinner and might have been infected there, he said.

All the areas within six kilometers of the building have also been closed off for stricter management, while related departments have launched further epidemiological investigation and disinfection measures at public venues in the area, he said.

Xie added that more than 820,000 swab samples have been collected for nucleic acid tests as of Saturday, with more than 210,000 coming out negative.

To prevent and control the coronavirus from spreading, Guangzhou has required all the residents in the city’s 11 districts to take nucleic acid test over the weekend, with Liwan, Haizhu, Yuexiu and Tianhe districts having started multi-round of nucleic acid tests for all residents.

As of the end of Saturday, the city has collected swab samples of 16.09 million for nucleic acid tests.

All the cross-province coach services between Guangzhou and other provinces, municipalities and regions have been suspended.

Guangdong Province on Saturday registered seven locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and three locally transmitted asymptomatic cases, the provincial health commission said yesterday.

All of the confirmed and asymptomatic cases were reported in Guangzhou, it said.

The city has reported a total of 94 infections, including 80 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 14 asymptomatic carriers in the latest round of COVID-19 resurgence starting May 21.

(Xinhua, China Daily)