In light of a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, more than 20,000 villagers from 12 villages in Gaocheng District of Shijiangzhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, had been relocated to centralized quarantine sites as of Wednesday to contain the virus spread.
As of Thursday, Hebei Province had reported 463 cases of local transmission and 195 asymptomatic cases.
"In the district, a village may have dozens of families or hundreds of families. Only closing the entrance to a village cannot stop villagers interacting with each other within a village, so it's better to relocate the villagers to a place to quarantine themselves," Tong Zhaohui, an expert with the National Health Commission, told China Media Group.
Tong added, at present, some villagers have not been infected with the virus, and the relocation-style quarantine aims to avoid new cases emerging from the interaction between the infected and uninfected.
In recent days, some regions in China reported sporadic domestically-transmitted COVID-19 cases and also cluster cases. The ongoing wave of the outbreak shows characteristics including long duration, wide scope, fast spread, old-aged sufferers and a concentration in rural areas, said Mi Feng, spokesperson of the National Health Commission.
Mi added that some areas showed the virus spread within a community and generations within a family.
"Home quarantines cannot achieve what a quarantine intends to reach, because it can easily cause family cluster cases," Meng Xianghong, deputy mayor of Shijiangzhuang City, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying.
Read more: COVID-19 in China: Biggest daily new case jump in over 5 months
A district in Qiqihaer City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province is in lockdown, January 14, 2021. /CFP
Since the COVID-19 patients in the city were mainly from several areas including Gaocheng District, local authorities decided to take an approach of centralized quarantine to curb the spread of virus, especially within one family, Meng added.
"Each villager lives in a single room at a hotel and takes their temperature each morning and night, while staff workers disinfect hallways three times a day," a villager named Du Jinglin, told Xinhua News Agency.
In addition to Hebei Province, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province also reported of new domestically-transmitted cases on Wednesday.
According to data from National Health Commission, the Chinese mainland reported 124 local transmissions on Wednesday - 81 in Hebei Province and 43 in Heilongjiang Province.
One thing to notice is that east China's Shandong Province and northeast China's Jilin Province on Tuesday both reported cases related to Wangkui County in Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province.
This drew many experts to warn people to cut unnecessary trips to prevent the spread of coronavirus across the country.
In recent days, many cities in China including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou issued notices advising people to stay where they are, instead of returning to their hometowns for the upcoming traditional family reunion during the Spring Festival.
It is highly unlikely that China will experience a major resurgence of the novel coronavirus during the upcoming Spring Festival, given that the nation has created containment measures to quickly identify, isolate and control any possible outbreaks, said Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.