Between 00:00, March 10 and 24:00, April 11, Suzhou reported 10 locally transmitted confirmed cases (with mild symptoms) and 364 local asymptomatic cases; 73 % of them are patients infected by virus carriers from Shanghai. Most of the local infections were registered in Kunshan (49.6%) and Taicang (15.8%), both adjacent to Shanghai.
Between 0:00 and 15:00, April 12, Suzhou reported 31 new COVID-19 infections , involving seven county-level cities and districts. The city now faces risks of an epidemic rebound due to sporadic resurgences of COVID-19 infections.
To increase the city’s nucleic acid testing capacity, two new testing labs, with design capacity of testing 100,000 and 80,000 sample tubes respectively, were put into use on April 11. The two labs combined are capable of testing 760,000 sample tubes daily.
Based on current epidemic situation, Suzhou has adopted stricter epidemic prevention and control measures. As of 12:00, April 12, there have been 112 lockdown areas, 93 control areas and 15 prevention areas across the city. Kunshan has been under 7-day static management since April 6 and today is the last day; Taicang has been under static management since April 11; certain part of SIP’s Loufeng Subdistrict has been under static management since 00:00, April 12.
Suzhou has no plans for city-wide lockdown at present. Restrictions will be imposed on areas with infections. With proper epidemic prevention measures in place, wet markets, supermarkets, drug stores, medical facilities and designated catering enterprises (serve meals for delivery only) will remain open.
The vegetable inventory across the city has exceeded 10,000 tons, twice that number before the epidemic, which is capable of meeting the demand of the residents. In the meantime, the city has released more reserves onto the market. Large supermarkets are in sufficient supply and stores of RT-Mart, Metro, Vanguard and Walmart operate without a break. E-commerce platforms offer nearly 700 tons of vegetables, meat, fruit and other daily necessities each day.
