(TibetanReview.net, Aug12’22) – There were 15 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 107 asymptomatic infections in the whole of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) as of Aug 11 at 10:14 PM, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Aug 11, citing local health officials, with the number of cases being still on the rise with high spreading risk.
Tibet’s capital Lhasa now has one high-risk area and 19 medium-risk areas, reported China’s official cgtn.com (the website of China global Television Network) Aug 11.
And it has ordered residents not to go out unless they have special and urgent matters to attend to between Aug 12 and 15, as Covid-19 workers carried out disinfection work in main urban areas, reported Reuters Aug 12.
The city of Shigatse (Chinese: Xigaze) in southern Tibet on Aug 11 extended the city-wide static management, asking local residents to stay at home for another three days given the city’s grim epidemic situation, said the globaltimes.cn report.
The report said Shigatse had found two confirmed Covid-19 cases and 19 asymptomatic infections on Aug 10, as it and Lhasa have finished the second round of mass nucleic acid testing.
The cgtn.com report cited officials as saying the outbreak in Lhasa was probably caused by family clusters, with the latest testing results showing there was a risk of transmission between confirmed cases and the rest of the public.
So far, more than 600 people have reportedly been identified as close contacts and secondary close contacts of confirmed cases in TAR.
The globaltimes.cn report cited Ji Yue as saying Aug 10, there had been 7,317 tourists including 20 foreign visitors stranded in TAR, including 1,108 in Shigatse.
In order to protect the tourism industry, the Shigatse government has promised to provide free accommodation to travelers who were stranded at hotels including family hotels in the downtown area of the city from Aug 8 to the end of static management, except for those who had left the city before Aug 10. The city’s financial department will pay the hotels for tourists’ accommodation, and has asked local hotels to register the guests’ information and cost.
The region has set up three temporary Covid-19 hospitals in the cities of Lhasa, Shigatse and Chamdo (Chinese: Qamdo), with more than 4,000 beds. No cases have been reported from eastern Tibet’s Chamdo city yet, though.