Hebei province entered “wartime” mode after recording  new Covid-19 cases and the provincial capital Shijiazhuang performed city-wide testing of its 11 million inhabitants. The province has put in place various Covid-19 prevention measures including controls on highways passing through Hebei leading to Beijing and other provinces, stopping sales of railway tickets to Beijing, suspending classes in schools, implementing closed-off management in residential communities in Shijiazhuang, and taking nucleic acid tests. On January 7, Shijiazhuang went into lockdown and all people and vehicles in the city are not allowed to leave. A total of 364 positive cases were discovered among the 13 million residents from Shijiazhuang and Xingtai in Hebei who had undergone a first round of nucleic acid tests. On January 10, the Chinese mainland confirmed 103 Covid-19 cases in one day,  the steep?est increase in a single day in more than five months. Gene sequencing showed the virus strain belongs to a European branch and probably came into the country through Shijiazhuang airport. Supermarkets and shopping malls in Shijiazhuang closed their doors and switched to online sales using contactless delivery.

Authorities and experts have urged the public to restrict unnecessary movement and gatherings during the Lunar New Year holiday to help prevent and control Covid-19 ahead of the annual peak travel season in China. Employees are encouraged to spend the holiday where they work instead of returning to their hometowns, and people are to avoid traveling abroad, according to a circular released by the central Covid-19 response task force. It is recommended that private gatherings, including family banquets, be limited to 10 people. Transport authorities should take measures to avoid mass gatherings of travelers at airports and bus and train stations while implementing epidemic control and prevention measures such as temperature testing. 

Chinese glass producers are working to provide much-needed vials for coronavirus vaccines, with a potential boom in demand in China and abroad. Some companies’ annual production capacity has expanded to tens of billions of units. China’s demand for at least eight billion vaccine vials a year has created a supply shortage. Borosilicate glass comes in three categories: low-borate, neutral and high borosilicate. The main difference is the ability to resist temperature changes. In markets like the U.S. and Europe, neutral borosilicate glass packaging has been made mandatory for all vaccines and biological agents. Limited capacity for the neutral variety led to the wide use of low borosilicate glass vials in China. The use of the neutral variety in China is only about 10%, lower than in countries like the U.S., Germany and Japan. Shandong Pharmaceutical Glass’ annual vial production stands at 26 billion units, including three billion for low and neutral borosilicate glass. Vials have been designated as strategic materials as part of the Covid-19 vaccination effort. Chongqing Zhengchuan Pharmaceutical Packaging told the Global Times it has more than 800 manufacturing machines that can make three billion neutral and low borosilicate vials, which is adequate to meet market demand, the Global Times reports.

Two Chinese firms announced they had developed a rapid testing kit for the new B117 variant of Covid-19, initially reported by the UK on December 14, and both said that results are available in one hour. A unit under China’s genetics firm BGI produced a test kit using the ARMS-qPCR method designed for specific amplification of the core mutation site N501Y of the B117 strain, combined with fluorescent probe signals, to quickly identify wild-type and mutant virus strains. Sansure Biotech, based in Changsha, Hunan province, also said it has developed a testing kit that can rapidly identify the new virus strain. China has so far reported two imported cases of the new variant, one in Shanghai and one in Guangdong province. 

Beijing extended the Covid-19 observation period for inbound travelers to 21 days following sporadic locally-transmitted cases. When passengers on an inbound flight are found positive or are diagnosed positive during isolated observation, passengers who took the same flight should be under isolation or stay at home for another seven days after a 14-day observation period. For those who do not test positive at the customs-entry stage or during the observation period, health monitoring will be strictly implemented for another seven days after the 14-day observation. Meanwhile, inbound travelers may enter Beijing 21 days after they enter China at another port of entry.