{"total":16643,"items":[{"nid":753590,"title":"France urges caution as first post-lockdown weekend beckons","description":"PARIS, May 15 — French officials called Friday for self-restraint as the country prepares for its first weekend since the coronavirus lockdown was eased, warning that police would break up any large gatherings of people taking too much advantage of newfound freedoms. Scenes of packed squares and...","content":"People ride bicycles on a bike path on the banks of the river Seine with the Pont Rouelle bridge and the Eiffel tower in the background in Paris during the outbreak coronavirus disease in France, May 14, 2020. — Reuters pic\n\nPARIS, May 15 — French officials called Friday for self-restraint as the country prepares for its first weekend since the coronavirus lockdown was eased, warning that police would break up any large gatherings of people taking too much advantage of newfound freedoms.\n\nScenes of packed squares and riverbanks in Paris and other cities this week have the authorities worried that social-distancing diligence will fade in the spring sunshine forecast for much of the country.\n\nThe government is walking a fine line, hoping to avert a new surge in Covid-19 cases even as it cautiously reopens some businesses and lets people now travel within 100 kilometres of their homes without requiring a justification.\n\nSince the lockdown was eased Monday, “the response has globally been positive,” government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye told France 2 television.\n\n“But significant efforts must still be made” ahead of the summer tourism season, she said, when cooped-up families will be looking to escape to countryside retreats or beaches.\n\nDeputy interior ministry Laurent Nunez called Thursday for “civic-mindedness” after the government conceded that its limit on public gatherings to 10 people or less could not be enforced in private homes.\n\n“It’s a matter of common sense,” he said. “Everyone needs to be responsible, to decide if you want to be part of the chain of transmission for this virus. On our side, we are trying to break it at all costs.”\n\nLocal officials have reopened large stretches of beaches along the Atlantic coast, a “green” zone where the virus threat remains contained for now, but only strolling and swimming will be allowed — no sunbathing, and no crowds.\n\nBut parks in Paris, a hard-hit “red” along with large parts of northeastern France, will remain closed, despite a plea from a doctors’ union to grant Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s request to make them available to residents in search of fresh air.\n\n“Parisians, especially the less privileged living in the densest areas, haven’t had room to breath during the lockdown and cannot take it any longer,” the CSMF union said.\n\nThe government has refused, and this week ordered a ban on alcohol consumption alongside the Seine and the city’s canals in a bid to dissuade merrymakers.\n\nCall of the wild\n\nOfficials are also urging people to remain vigilant when venturing into forests, where rangers are bracing for a wave of hikers and bikers.\n\n“We’ll have to issue some reminders,” including the need for face masks when encountering other users, said Arnaud Pericard, mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a Paris suburb that serves as a gateway to a popular neighbouring forest.\n\n“I’m trusting that people will behave responsibly,” he told AFP this week.\n\nBut horseback patrols will also be deployed across the 39 forests surrounding the French capital to ensure social distancing, regional authorities said.\n\nSeveral smaller museums and monuments also began reopening this week, hoping to cater to visitors eager for a taste of culture after two months of strict stay-at-home orders.\n\nBut space will be limited: The majestic Chartres cathedral, which falls within the permitted 100-kilometre radius of Paris, is allowing just 10 people at a time, for 20 minutes maximum. — AFP","author":"","url":"https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2020/05/15/france-urges-caution-as-first-post-lockdown-weekend-beckons/1866551","urlToImage":"https://media.malaymail.com/resize_cache/uploads/articles/2020/2020-05/Paris_15052020-seo.JPG","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:26:46Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:31Z","siteName":"malaymail.com","language":"en","countryCode":"MY","status":1},{"nid":753604,"title":"Coronavirus lockdown | Government to amend Essential Commodities Act to deregulate cereals, edible oil, pulses","description":"The amendment, besides deregulating production and sale of food products, will provide for no stock limit to be imposed on any produce.","content":"The government will amend the six-and-a-half-decade old Essential Commodities Act to deregulate food items, including cereals, edible oil, oilseeds, pulses, onion and potato, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.\n\nAlso read: Coronavirus | Nirmala Sitharaman announces major stimulus package for MSMEs\n\nThe amendment, besides deregulating production and sale of food products, will provide for no stock limit to be imposed on any produce.\n\nA stock limit will be imposed only under very exceptional circumstances like national calamities, famine with a surge in prices.\n\nAlso, no stock limit shall apply to processors or value chain participants, she said announcing the third tranche of economic relief package to deal with COVID-19 disruptions.\n\nAlso, agriculture marketing reforms will be done to provide marketing choices to farmers.\n\nAlso read: Coronavirus package | Migrant workers to get free foodgrains\n\nShe also announced new funds for fisheries, dairy development, herbal plantation and livestock vaccination.\n\nShe said ₹15,000 crore Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund will be set up to support investment in dairy processing, value addition and cattle feed infrastructure.\n\nTo ensure 100 per cent vaccination of all livestock against foot and mouth disease (FMD) ₹13,343 crore will be provided, she said.\n\nAs much as ₹10,000 crore will be provided for fishermen through Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).\n\nListen: Coronavirus daily update | First details of economic package, India caught in U.S.-China spat over Taiwan WHO status | The Hindu In Focus Podcast\n\nFor promoting herbal cultivation, ₹4,000 crore National Medicinal Plants Fund will be started to help 10 lakh hectares to be covered under herbal cultivation.\n\nAlso, Operation Greens will be extended from tomato, onion and potato to all fruit and vegetables by providing 50 per cent subsidy on transportation and storage of these commodities, she said.\n\nFor beekeepers, a ₹500-crore scheme was announced for infrastructure development and post-harvest facilities.","author":"PTI","url":"https://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/third-tranche-of-economic-package-announced-by-union-finance-minister-nirmala-sitharaman-on-may-15-2020/article31593785.ece","urlToImage":"https://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/klllhb/article31593784.ece/ALTERNATES/LANDSCAPE_615/NirmalaSitharaman","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:24:30Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:34Z","siteName":"thehindu.com","language":"en","countryCode":"IN","status":1},{"nid":753592,"title":"Covid-19: Nearly half of 232 returning students placed in Labuan quarantine centres, says disaster management chief","description":"LABUAN, May 15 — Almost half of the 232 students of higher learning institutions who returned here from the peninsula today were sent to two quarantine centres, at the Labuan Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and Pusat Giat Mara. Those placed in the quarantine centres were mostly from Covid-19...","content":"Malaysians returning from overseas queue to take a bus to a quarantine centre in Kuala Lumpur April 8, 2020. —Picture by Yusof Mat Isa\n\nLABUAN, May 15 — Almost half of the 232 students of higher learning institutions who returned here from the peninsula today were sent to two quarantine centres, at the Labuan Industrial Training Institute (ITI) and Pusat Giat Mara.\n\nThose placed in the quarantine centres were mostly from Covid-19 yellow and red zones in the peninsula.\n\nLabuan Disaster Management Committee chairman Dr Fary Akmal Osman said all the students had undergone health checks and random swab tests conducted by the Health Department upon their arrival at the Labuan Airport at about noon.\n\n“Some 48 per cent or 111 of the 232 students were sent to the two quarantine centres after undergoing risk assessment and sample taking procedures, while the remaining 121 will be home-quarantined for at least 14 days,” she told Bernama.\n\nShe said 95 students were sent to Pusat Giat Mara and 16 to the training institute. — Bernama","author":"","url":"https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/05/15/covid-19-nearly-half-of-232-returning-students-placed-in-labuan-quarantine/1866549","urlToImage":"https://media.malaymail.com/resize_cache/uploads/articles/2020/2020-04/20200408YM03_malaysian_returnees_quarantine-seo.jpg","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:18:22Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:31Z","siteName":"malaymail.com","language":"en","countryCode":"MY","status":1},{"nid":753550,"title":"Review contradicts Boris Johnson on claims he ordered early COVID-19 lockdown at UK care homes","description":"LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Britain's parliament on Wednesday (May 13) that his government moved swiftly to protect the country's ...","content":"LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Britain's parliament on Wednesday (May 13) that his government moved swiftly to protect the country's vulnerable care homes. Under increasing pressure to defend his record on fighting COVID-19, he said: \"We brought in the lockdown in care homes ahead of the general lockdown.\"\n\nAn examination by Reuters of the guidance issued to care homes, as well as interviews with three care home providers, has provided no evidence that any such early lockdown was ordered.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nAdvertisement\n\nThe government's handling of care homes has emerged as a major controversy in parliament. According to a Reuters analysis of official figures, the pandemic has resulted in over 20,000 deaths in UK care homes.\n\nThe prime minister's spokesman told reporters on Wednesday that in his comments earlier that day to parliament, Johnson was referring to government advice to care homes, issued on Mar 13.\n\nThis advice, he said, was \"recommending essential visits only, that obviously came before we took steps nationwide in relation to social distancing\". The government issued a general lockdown order to the nation on March 23.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nAdvertisement\n\nThe Mar 13 guidance by the government was equivocal, a review of the documents shows. The advisory, reviewed by Reuters, did not impose a ban on visits from family or friends.\n\nInstead, the document from Public Health England, an official agency, advised home providers to \"review their visiting policy by asking no one to visit who has suspected COVID-19 or is generally unwell, and by emphasising good hand hygiene for visitors\".\n\nBalancing those restrictions, it said that care home policies \"should also consider the wellbeing of residents, and the positive impact of seeing friends and family\".\n\nAt a press conference on Mar 16, Johnson commented that \"absolutely, we don't want to see people unnecessarily visiting care homes\".\n\nReuters found no official guidance which made that advice mandatory. The news agency asked 10 Downing Street, Johnson's office, if it could point to any official order that care homes must close to outside visitors, prior to the broader UK lockdown on Mar 23.\n\nA government spokeswoman referred Reuters to the Mar 13 advice. Asked if there were further instructions to care homes between Mar 13 and the Mar 23 general lockdown, the spokeswoman said there were not.\n\nIn a statement, the government said it had been \"keeping in regular contact with care homes to provide guidance on reducing the spread of infection. We have continued to review and update our guidance, in line with the latest scientific advice.\"\n\nThe government's cautious approach to imposing restrictions was signaled earlier in March by Chris Whitty, the chief medical adviser. At the launch of the government's coronavirus action plan, on Mar 3, Whitty told journalists that specific advice for care homes would be issued in future, \"but one of the things we are keen to avoid … is doing things too early.\"\n\nHe explained that premature action would bring no benefit \"but what you do get is a social cost\".\n\nA Reuters investigation last week detailed how the government's focus on shielding hospitals, to prevent emergency wards from being overwhelmed, left care home residents and staff exposed to COVID-19. To free up hospital beds, many patients were discharged into homes for the elderly and vulnerable, many without being tested for the coronavirus that causes the disease.\n\nOn May 5, when Reuters initially asked the Department for Health and Social Care when an order was first given to ban care home visits by family and friends, a press officer responded: \"There was no order, care providers make their own decisions about visitors.\"\n\nLater that day, another press officer said the guidance was issued in a document dated Apr 2, which said visits should only be made in exceptional circumstances, such as when residents are dying. That guidance was issued 10 days after the national lockdown and 20 days after the earlier, more nuanced advice to care homes.\n\nJoyce Pinfield, who runs two care homes and is on the board of directors at the National Care Association, a body which represents care providers, said she spent time Wednesday after Johnson's comments to parliament trying to find out when the order to lock down care homes was made.\n\nShe said she found no trace of any order prior to the wider UK lockdown on Mar 23 and the Apr 2 instruction closing homes to outside visits, and concluded there hadn't been one.\n\n\"The guidance should have been far better,\" she said. \"It was left to care providers to make their own decisions.\"\n\nPinfield's view was echoed by Julie Nicholls, the manager of the Appleby Lodge residential home in Cornwall. Nicholls said care home managers were left to make their own decisions about whether to restrict visits.\n\nShe closed her care home on Mar 13, the day after the government moved the threat level of the virus to \"high\" and the prime minister warned the nation to expect to lose loved ones.\n\nNicholls said she \"definitely didn't have any government guidance\" to close before the general lockdown ordered by Johnson on Mar 23. \"There was never a formal order,\" she said.\n\nOpposition MPs have accused Johnson this week of misleading parliament over the government's handling of the coronavirus.\n\nLabour leader, Keir Starmer, confronted the prime minister in parliament on Wednesday with Public Health England guidance for care homes that was in place from Feb 25 to Mar 12.\n\nThis stated, as reported by Reuters on May 5, that \"it remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home will become infected.\" A government spokesman told Reuters in early May that the advice \"accurately reflected the situation at the time when there was a limited risk of the infection getting into a care home\".\n\nJohnson replied to Starmer that \"it wasn't true that the advice said that\".\n\nAfter the debate, Starmer wrote to Johnson asking him to correct his remark. The prime minister responded that he stood by his comments and accused the Labour leader of selectively and misleadingly quoting from the documents.\n\nDownload our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram","author":"","url":"https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/covid-19-boris-johnson-claims-early-lockdown-uk-care-homes-12736412","urlToImage":"https://cna-sg-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/image/12736408/16x9/991/557/4cb5af4e19e49efc8e548a0bbaf7cffb/Do/prime-minister-s-questions-in-the-house-of-commons-chamber-in-london-1.jpg","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:14:55Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:18Z","siteName":"channelnewsasia.com","language":"en","countryCode":"SG","status":1},{"nid":753594,"title":"Europol: migrant smuggling set to surge as virus lockdown eases","description":"THE HAGUE, Netherlands, May 15 — The EU’s policing agency warned Friday that the easing of coronavirus measures may trigger a surge in illegal migration towards Europe’s borders. Europol said in its latest report that illegal migration slowed down during the Covid-19 lockdown, but was bound...","content":"Refugees and migrants from overcrowded migrant camps who will be transferred to Britain wear protective face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus disease as they walk to\n\nTHE HAGUE, Netherlands, May 15 — The EU’s policing agency warned Friday that the easing of coronavirus measures may trigger a surge in illegal migration towards Europe’s borders.\n\nEuropol said in its latest report that illegal migration slowed down during the Covid-19 lockdown, but was bound to shoot up once restrictions are lifted.\n\n“A loosening of travel and movement restrictions is likely to result in an increasing movement of irregular migrants... as they have been largely unable to make movements during the lockdown,” Europol said.\n\n“Prolonged economic instability and the sustained lack of opportunities in some African economies may trigger another wave of irregular migration towards the EU in the mid-term,” the Hague-based agency warned.\n\nBecause air travel has virtually stopped over the past two months and border controls were tightened, people smugglers also shifted their ways to get illegal migrants into the continent.\n\n“Small boats are increasingly being used to cross river borders” as well as the English Channel, Europol said, while they are also being hidden in cross-border freight vehicles and cargo trains.\n\nOrganised criminals would also seek to exploit coronavirus-related restrictions on sex work, further putting vulnerable migrants at risk, Europol said.\n\nEuropol also accused Turkey of helping “large groups of migrants” to cross the Greek border earlier this year.\n\nTurkey decided in February to re-open its border for refugees seeking to reach Europe, sparking a huge row with the European Union. — AFP","author":"","url":"https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2020/05/15/europol-migrant-smuggling-set-to-surge-as-virus-lockdown-eases/1866548","urlToImage":"https://media.malaymail.com/resize_cache/uploads/articles/2020/2020-05/Migrants_15052020-seo.JPG","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:14:23Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:31Z","siteName":"malaymail.com","language":"en","countryCode":"MY","status":1},{"nid":753596,"title":"Liverpool boss Klopp pokes fun at Neville over lockdown rants","description":"LONDON, May 15 — Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has joked that his biggest lesson from the coronavirus lockdown is just how outspoken former Manchester United defender Gary Neville can be. In his role as a television pundit, Neville has vented on a range of issues related to the Premier League...","content":"Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp reacts during the match against Sheffield United January 3, 2020. ― Reuters pic\n\nLONDON, May 15 — Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has joked that his biggest lesson from the coronavirus lockdown is just how outspoken former Manchester United defender Gary Neville can be.\n\nIn his role as a television pundit, Neville has vented on a range of issues related to the Premier League and the health crisis.\n\nThe former England international has criticised Premier League chiefs for being slow to give updates on their restart plans.\n\nHe also took issue with the government’s call for players to take wage cuts during the pandemic and let rip on a host of other subjects.\n\nKlopp could not resist a good-natured jibe at Neville when asked what his lockdown experience had been like.\n\n“I didn’t learn a lot in lockdown, other than Gary Neville has an opinion about absolutely everything. It is incredible,” Klopp told the BBC’s Football Focus programme.\n\nLiverpool were two wins away from winning the English title for the first time in 30 years when the Premier League was postponed on March 13.\n\nThe league hopes to resume in mid-June and players are already returning to training while observing strict social-distancing rules.\n\nKlopp has been in touch with Liverpool’s squad, but he admitted it had been hard to go so long without seeing them in person.\n\n“I am quite proud how we as a society have dealt with it,” he said. “We are not perfect. We will always make mistakes but I think we have learned how connected we are to each other.\n\n“I miss the boys the most because we created a group where all the people at Melwood (training ground) have a really good relationship and we became friends over the last four-and-a-half years.\n\n“We saw each other with Zoom and other calls but it is still not the same. Going back to Melwood and doing the things we usually do is something I really miss.” — AFP","author":"","url":"https://www.malaymail.com/news/sports/2020/05/15/liverpool-boss-klopp-pokes-fun-at-neville-over-lockdown-rants/1866545","urlToImage":"https://media.malaymail.com/resize_cache/uploads/articles/2020/2020-01/juergen_klopp_030120-seo.jpg","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:05:25Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:31Z","siteName":"malaymail.com","language":"en","countryCode":"MY","status":1},{"nid":753606,"title":"The future of swimming post-Covid","description":"How swimming coaches are working their way around the lockdown","content":"You can replace a kettlebell with a water can, but what about a swimming pool? “We can’t recreate much,” laughs Nisha Millet, director of Bengaluru-based Nisha Millet Swimming Academy. But swimming coaches are trying to work their way around this, by concentrating on other components. “Focus on maintaining your strength and a good core, especially a strong back and shoulders,” says Manisha Khungar of Gurgaon’s Trifitness.\n\nFitso, a Gurgaon sports academy that has paused operations at its pools, has started online sessions to engage its members in dry-length body weight exercises (that need minimal to no equipment). “The stamina you need for running isn’t the same as for swimming. Nevertheless, these exercises will keep you active and in shape,” says co-founder Saurabh Aggarwal, a triathlete.\n\nEyes on the price\n\nA number of countries are now allowing elite swimmers to take to the pool again, and trainers and swimmers in India are keeping a close eye on international developments. Institutes like Fitso are focussing on selling memberships at discounted rates, which can be put to good use once the lockdown is over. Millet hopes to cut down on prices, but keeping the pools up and running, and chalking out a future agenda is priority now. “We've been paying the electricity bills because our pools can’t stop filtration,” she explains, adding that chlorine reportedly being a decent shield against bacteria and viruses (at least waterborne pathogens) is a silver lining. She says keeping parents from sitting by the poolside, urging people to come in their swimwear, dry up and leave without using the changing rooms, and halting daily access passes to pools, might do the trick.\n\nManisha Khungar of Gurgaon’s Trifitness | Photo Credit: YEASHU YUVRAJ\n\nAggarwal hopes that the practice at Fitso of dividing a pool into different zones based on the proficiency levels is replicated by other pools. “Cities may have sufficient facilities, but it’s ridiculous to keep the group size to four swimmers, for example,” affirms Khunger on suggestions to limit swimmers in the pool at one time.\n\nOpen water swimming\n\nHowever, with events like the Ironman announced for November in Goa, swimmers are keeping an eye out for opportunities to hit the water. Some — such as Khunger’s clients who are in lockdown in Goa — are making the most of open water bodies. “Open water swimming is good because of the lack of contact with other swimmers,” says coach Nisha Madgavkar, who won the 2019 Ironman (40-44 age group). “But you need to get acclimatised to the sea first, maybe for a day or two.” Millet, on the other hand, is not a big fan. “It is quite a dangerous environment,” she says, adding, “You need to teach swimmers the skills in a pool and simulate the condition through exercises — like making four people swim in the same lane so that they bang into each other, because in open water you can’t swim straight.”","author":"Lesley Simeon","url":"https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/fitness/how-swimming-coaches-are-working-their-way-around-the-lockdown/article31593528.ece","urlToImage":"https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/fitness/9kbv68/article31593527.ece/ALTERNATES/LANDSCAPE_615/Nisha-Millet-Session-3","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:04:41Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:36Z","siteName":"thehindu.com","language":"en","countryCode":"IN","status":1},{"nid":753608,"title":"COVID-19 patient dies in Thoothukudi","description":"THOOTHUKUDIA lorry driver, who was admitted to the Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital with neural complications on Tuesday evening and later found to have contracted COVID-19, died on Fri","content":"THOOTHUKUDI\n\nA lorry driver, who was admitted to the Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital with neural complications on Tuesday evening and later found to have contracted COVID-19, died on Friday.\n\nThe 34-year-old youth from Kadaladi in Ramanathapuram district returned from Chennai to his native place in a lorry going to Thoothukudi as bus service remains suspended. As he got down from the lorry at Kurukkusalai, situated 16 km from Thoothukudi on the Madurai highway, he developed fits and was admitted to a private hospital in Thoothukudi by his relative, who was waiting for him at Kurukkusalai.\n\nWhen his condition worsened, the patient’s relative shifted him to the Government Medical College Hospital’s intensive care unit on last Tuesday evening without telling the doctors there that the lorry driver had come from Chennai. Even as the doctors were treating him for the neural complication, the lorry driver developed COVID-19 symptoms and the doctors’ worst fear was confirmed on Wednesday evening when he tested positive.\n\nSubsequently, he was shifted to the COVID-19 treatment ward, where his condition deteriorated further and was put on ventilator. However, he died on Friday.\n\nAs the COVID-19 positive patient died, the body, as per the protocol, was packed in polythene bag and buried in a 15-feet-deep pit in the Corporation burial ground opposite VOC College after filling the pit with disinfectant and sand layers for every two feet with police protection.\n\nMeanwhile, the doctors, nurses, conservancy workers and other patients of intensive care unit of medical college hospital, the doctors, nurses and other staff of the private hospital where he was admitted first have been isolated and put in quarantine.\n\n“In all, 70 persons have been quarantined and disinfection is going on in the ICU,” said the sources in the Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital.","author":"Special Correspondent","url":"https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/covid-19-patient-dies-in-thoothukudi/article31593604.ece","urlToImage":"https://www.thehindu.com/static/theme/default/base/img/og-image.jpg","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:03:37Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:36Z","siteName":"thehindu.com","language":"en","countryCode":"IN","status":1},{"nid":753548,"title":"Chinese city quarantines thousands over new COVID-19 cluster","description":"BEIJING: A major city in north-east China has quarantined over 7,500 people after it discovered three new coronavirus cases in the past five days ...","content":"BEIJING: A major city in north-east China has quarantined over 7,500 people after it discovered three new coronavirus cases in the past five days as the region sees a surge in infections.\n\nChina has largely brought the virus under control after months of lockdowns and curbs on travel, but fears of a second wave have risen as clusters have emerged in northeast provinces and in the central city of Wuhan.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nAdvertisement\n\nShenyang, a city of around 7.5 million, reported its first new local case in 89 days on Monday (May 11), and a further two new local cases on Thursday.\n\nIts government confirmed Thursday that the new cases were linked to a cluster in the city of Shulan, nearly 500km away in neighbouring Jilin province.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nAdvertisement\n\nSome 7,500 people who arrived from Jilin since Apr 22 and those who came in close contact to the three local cases in Shenyang were required to undergo 21-day quarantine and three nucleic acid tests.\n\nThe city has also postponed reopening schools - some of which had been scheduled to welcome back students on Friday.\n\nAuthorities in the pandemic ground zero of Wuhan have also ordered mass COVID-19 testing for all 11 million residents after a new cluster of cases emerged over the weekend.\n\nPresident Xi Jinping said on Thursday that containment measures must be stepped up in Jilin, neighbouring Heilongjiang and Wuhan \"to forestall resurgence of infections\", reported Xinhua.\n\nThe cities of Jilin and Shulan, both in Jilin province, have been put under lockdown within the past week after an initial cluster that appeared in Shulan on Monday spilled over to Jilin.\n\nStrict controls have been placed on transport, schools have been ordered to close and mass gatherings banned.\n\nJilin's vice mayor warned Wednesday that the situation was \"extremely severe and complicated\" and \"there is major risk of further spread\".\n\nThe Shulan cluster was linked to a local woman with no known overseas travel history or previous exposure to the virus, sparking concerns over its unknown origin.\n\nDownload our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram","author":"","url":"https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/shenyang-china-quarantine-new-covid-19-cluster-12736570","urlToImage":"https://cna-sg-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/image/12736604/16x9/991/557/de1bd213c0fa18ca8f0e5020fd83fee0/yg/students-queue-at-a-distance-outside-a-middle-school-in-shenyang.jpg","publishedAt":"2020-05-15T12:02:31Z","addedOn":"2020-05-15T12:31:18Z","siteName":"channelnewsasia.com","language":"en","countryCode":"SG","status":1}]}