China’s north-eastern border with Russia has become a front line in the fight against a resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks – with more than 90% involving people coming from abroad.

China’s north-eastern border with Russia has become a front line in the fight against a resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic as new daily cases rose to the highest in nearly six weeks – with more than 90% involving people coming from abroad.
Having largely stamped out domestic transmission of the disease, China has been slowly easing curbs on movement as it tries to get its economy back on track, but there are fears that a rise in imported cases could spark a second wave of the virus.
A total of 108 new cases were reported in mainland China on Sunday, up from 99 a day earlier, marking the highest daily tally since 5 March.
Imported cases accounted for a record 98. Half involved Chinese nationals returning from Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, home to the city of Vladivostok, who re-entered China through border crossings in Heilongjiang province.
“Our little town here, we thought it was the safest place,” said a resident of the border city of Suifenhe, who only gave his surname as Zhu.
“Some Chinese citizens – they want to come back, but it’s not very sensible, what are you doing coming here for?”
The border is closed, except to Chinese nationals, and the land route through the city had become one of few options available for people trying to return home after Russia stopped flights to China except for those evacuating people.
Streets in Suifenhe were virtually empty on Sunday evening due to restrictions of movement and gatherings announced last week, when authorities took preventative measures similar to those imposed in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the pandemic ripping round the world first emerged late last year.
The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China now stands at 82,160 as of Sunday, and at the peak of the first wave of the epidemic on 12 February there were over 15,000 new cases.
Though the number of daily infections across China has dropped sharply from that peak, China has seen the daily toll creep higher after hitting a trough on 12 March because of the rise in imported cases.
Chinese cities near the Russian frontier are tightening border controls and imposing stricter quarantines in response.
Meanwhile South Korea plans to send 600,000 testing kits to the USA on Tuesday in the first such shipment following a request from US President Donald Trump.
Trump made the request for testing kits in a telephone call on 25 March with President Moon Jae-in, as the USA was grappling with fast-growing outbreaks in many states.
A US Federal Emergency Management Agency cargo plane carrying the equipment is scheduled to leave at 10.30pm (1.30pm Irish time) on Tuesday, a Seoul official said on condition of anonymity due to the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.
The kits were made by two of the three companies that secured preliminary arrival late last month from the US Food and Drug Administration, the official said, but declined to name them.
The shipments will be handed over to and paid for by the US government, while the additional 150,000 kits will be exported in the near future to be sold via an unspecified local retailer, the official said.
South Korea’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
South Korean companies have previously shipped test kits to US cities including Los Angeles but this would mark the first bulk order from the US federal government.