A central China county called Jia County has been put under lockdown again after a flare-up in coronavirus cases.
This latest lockdown points to the difficulty of sustaining outbreak containment in the face of carriers who show no signs of sickness.
The population of the county numbers 640,000 and on Wednesday a directive was issued, asking all residential compounds to be sealed off and those visiting and leaving homes to produce identity cards, to wear masks and submit to temperature checks. Car traffic will also be limited.
The latest lockdown arrives after residents were unnerved by an incident in which a woman was infected after she visited a doctor who carried the virus but showed no signs of being sick. Researchers are finding that these stealthy carriers can play an outsized role in spreading the pathogen to others, since there’s no easy way to tell they’re infected.
