(TibetanReview.net, Aug18’22) – The current Covid-19 outbreak in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) occurred during its peak tourism season, causing a large number of tourists to be stranded and leading to possible spillover of the epidemic to other areas, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Aug 16. The report said the region reported eight locally confirmed cases and 264 asymptomatic carriers from 0 to 2 pm on that day for a total of 272 cases.
As of 2pm Aug 16, the region reported a total of 186 confirmed and 1,983 asymptomatic cases, a total of 2,169 cases.
The report cited Tenzin Lhundrub, deputy secretary of the regional people’s government and press spokesman of the regional government, as saying the current outbreak occurred during the region’s peak tourism season, causing a large number of tourists to be stranded and leading to possible spillover of the epidemic to other areas.
And in the TAR’s worst-hit city of Shigatse, a total of 16 new confirmed and 311 asymptomatic cases were reported on Oct 15, said the official news.cgtn.com Aug 16. With it the aggregate number of infections in the city on that day stood at 1,090, with 98 confirmed and 992 asymptomatic cases, the report added.
Indeed, in Beijing, residents who had been to risk areas including Hainan province, the TAR and the Xinjiang are required to report to their residential communities, hotels or workplaces for epidemic prevention measures accordingly, said another chinadaily.com.cn report Aug 15.
And a previous chinadaily.com.cn report Aug 14 said that Shanghai had reported one asymptomatic infection outside its quarantined population that day, adding that the new infection was detected in a 6-year-old who had returned to from Lhasa by flight Aug 9.