China builds new quarantine center as virus cases rise - The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — A city in northern China is building a 3,000-unit quarantine facility to deal with an anticipated overflow of patients as COVID-19 cases rise ahead of the Lunar New Year travel rush.

China has largely contained further domestic spread of the coronavirus, but the recent spike has raised concerns due to the proximity to the capital Beijing and the impending rush of people planning to travel large distances to rejoin their families for country’s most important traditional festival.

Nine cases were brought from outside the country, while local transmissions also occurred in the southern Guangxi region and the northern province of Shaanxi, illustrating the virus’ ability to move through the vast country of 1.4 billion people despite quarantines, travel restrictions and electronic monitoring.

That has cut off travel routes while more than 20 million people have been told to stay home for coming days.

“Other countries are not very supportive and don’t pay attention to the pandemic, people go out arbitrarily, and they hang out and gather together, so it’s especially easy for them to be infected,” resident Xiang Nan said.