28 provincial-level regions involved, epidemic control measures tightened

New COVID-19 cases emerged in some areas on the Chinese mainland during the first four days of the weeklong National Day holiday, involving 28 provincial-level regions, the National Health Commission said on Wednesday.

From Saturday to Tuesday, the Chinese mainland reported 116,189, 250 and 223 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, respectively, according to the commission.

On Monday and Tuesday, 215 confirmed cases were reported in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and 61 in Guangdong province.

Most new cases in Inner Mongolia were from Hohhot, capital of the autonomous region, according to the local government. As of Monday, the city had 78 high-risk areas and 14 medium-risk areas.

In Guangdong, new cases were reported in some cities, mostly in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

According to the city government in Guangzhou, 24 new confirmed cases on Sunday and Monday were employees from a shipyard in Guangzhou's Nansha district.

In Shenzhen, confirmed cases dropped significantly on Monday compared with Sunday and Saturday, according to the local government.

The city has tightened epidemic control protocols to contain the spread of the virus, including strictly carrying out health checks on people arriving in Shenzhen during the holiday and implementing nucleic acid testing. It has also strengthened joint epidemic control between Shenzhen and neighboring Hong Kong.

Although no new locally transmitted confirmed cases were reported in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from Saturday to Tuesday, nearly 200 local asymptomatic carriers were newly identified during the four days, according to the local government.

The city government in Urumqi, the region's capital, has tightened epidemic control policies since Tuesday.

All residents of Urumqi have been asked to stay put in the region. Exceptions can be made after reporting to the regional government for residents who require medical treatment.

Stricter epidemic controls have been implemented in the transportation sector in Xinjiang. All passenger trains leaving the autonomous region have been suspended. The region has also suspended interprovincial passenger buses. Flights leaving Xinjiang are required to keep the passenger occupancy lower than 75 percent.

Liu Sushe, vice-chairman of the autonomous region, called the latest outbreak a major public health emergency.

He told a news conference on Tuesday that since July 30, the outbreak has spread to 37 county-level regions of Xinjiang and 15 units of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

He said the outbreak had been brought under control at the end of August but some new cases have emerged since mid-September. The new cases were identified in places such as Urumqi and the Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture, resulting in stricter epidemic control in the region.

Before the holiday, health officials encouraged people to stay put, and cross-regional travelers are required to present negative COVID-19 nucleic acid test results taken from within 48 hours before boarding public transport.

Travelers are also required to be tested upon arriving at their destinations, as part of the efforts to reduce the spread of the virus during the holiday.