Infections rise in Gansu, Guangxi

New COVID-19 infections in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Gansu province are rising, prompting efforts to care for stranded tourists and affected residents amid multiple rounds of testing and regional lockdowns, according to local authorities.

Beihai city in South China's Guangxi reported 110 infections on Sunday, with the tally since July 12 topping 530.

Nanning, the region's capital, as well as the cities of Chongzuo and Guilin also reported positive cases in the past week.

Beihai will roll out two more rounds of mass nucleic acid testing on Monday and Tuesday following five rounds completed in the past week, said local officials.

The outbreak occurred amid a tourism boom as travelers flocked to the coastal city for summer vacation. The city has set up a team designated to care for the over 2,000 tourists stranded due to COVID curbs.

Hotels should not turn away tourists whose digital health code status is abnormal but who can present negative nucleic acid test results taken within 48 hours and have not visited medium- or high-risk areas, local officials said.

They also asked hotels and hostels, as well as airlines operating flights at the airport, to offer full refunds to guests who have made reservations or bought tickets but cannot come due to the epidemic.

Jiang Tao, an employee at a tourism agency, said most travelers arriving in Beihai before the infection cluster surfaced came from neighboring Guangdong province.

"One group arrived at their hotel on July 12 (when the first case was detected) and had to stay there one day longer than originally planned to wait for nucleic acid test results. The additional room fee was covered by the local government," he said, adding that all returning visitors, including the tour guide, were monitoring their health status at home as required.

Two Beihai officials, including the head of the city's health commission, have been removed from their posts due to negligence over the virus' risk and poor implementation of virus containment measures.

In Lanzhou, capital of the northwestern province of Gansu, local infections since July 8 had risen to 643 as of Monday morning.

A total of nine prefecture-level regions across Gansu have reported local cases.

The downtown area of Lanzhou launched its seventh round of mass testing on Sunday afternoon and more than 120 centralized isolation facilities across the city have been put into use.

The weeklong anti-virus restrictions imposed on the four main districts in Lanzhou since July 12, such as closing entertainment and fitness venues, will be extended to July 24, said local officials.

Zhang Xiaochun, an official of Lanzhou's Chengguan district, said supplies of food and daily necessities in the district are sufficient. Through a hotline set up by the government, officials have addressed more than 1,300 requests, including medical demands, filed by the public.

Zhu Xia, a resident in Chengguan district, said she felt calm despite the virus flare-up and volunteered to arrange the bulk buying of vegetables for people living in her apartment complex.

The mainland reported 117 confirmed local cases and 393 asymptomatic infections on Sunday, compared with 106 and 474 respectively on the previous day.