Coronavirus: new infections alarm China as virus crosses Russian border

China raced to contain a new outbreak of COVID-19 in communities along its northern border with Russia.

An office building has been converted into a temporary hospital in Suifenhe in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province. Picture: AP

China raced to contain a new outbreak of COVID-19 in communities along its northern border with Russia, just days after Beijing had all but declared victory over the disease where it emerged, in the city of Wuhan.

With more than half of China’s new infections since the start of April coming from abroad, China has in recent days sealed off parts of its border with Russia and established a field hospital at the once-bustling border city of Suifenhe in the country’s far northeast.

Newly imported infections threaten to trigger a second wave of contagion in China — highlighting the risk countries face when easing restrictions.

The jump in infections also added to the uncertainty about the state of the pandemic in Russia, a country that has reported a relatively low infection rate of 21,000 cases and 170 deaths.

China’s new infecti­ons had ­recently fallen to zero, according to official data, which show that half of the 658 cases coming from abroad since the start of April were Chinese nationals who had ­entered from Russia into China’s Heilongjiang province, where Suifenhe is located. They had made their way from Moscow, starting on March 27, passing through the eastern port city of Vladivostok on their way to China.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sob­yanin, who has imposed a lockdown in the Russian capital, said last week that dozens of Chinese citizens had been deported for breaking quarantine regulations.

Officials didn’t say whether the new cases in China were among those who had been deported.

Tourism and business between Russia and China have grown in recent years as Moscow and ­Beijing have grown closer amid rising tensions with the US.

An increase in cases in the first week of April forced China to close all its land crossings with Russia, the Chinese embassy in Moscow said last Thursday. The field hospital built to handle new infections was meant to take in asymptom­atic patients who could spread the disease to others, and is equipped with equipment to diagnose incoming fresh cases.

Suifenhe has erected 330 checkpoints around the city and all residential compounds there have been put back under lockdown.

To prevent new infections, the provincial government has also ­offered rewards for citizens who report illegal efforts to cross the border with Russia.

Flights into China from Russia have also provided a path for new infections. On April 5, an Air China flight from Moscow to Beijing included 35 passengers infected with the coronavirus, Chinese health officials said.

Sixty new cases were registered by Chinese authorities as the result of an April 10 flight from Moscow to Shanghai by Aeroflot, according to the Shanghai city health officials. Passengers from both flights were quarantined.

The wall Street Journal