Xinjiang reports new local COVID-19 infections

A new locally transmitted COVID-19 case was reported in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on Thursday.

The case, a 24-year-old woman, was confirmed on Wednesday after her nucleic acid test for the novel coronavirus came back positive, the city's health commission said.

The woman works at Zhongquan Plaza, an electronic products retail center in central Urumqi.

She was taken to a designated hospital for COVID-19 patients after showing symptoms including sore throat on July 10. She started to have fever and headache on Tuesday.

Three people who had contact with the woman were found to be asymptomatic cases. Local authorities are still trying to find out how the woman was infected.

The subway of Urumqi has suspended services from 10 pm Thursday to prevent the virus from spreading, the subway company announced.

The last COVID-19 case reported in the region was in February.

Meanwhile, a man from Urumqi who runs a business in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, was confirmed to be an asymptomatic case, Zhejiang health commission said on Thursday.

The 50-year-old man flew to Hangzhou from Urumqi on July 10 and was later driven to Shaoxing by his friends.

He was informed by the Xinjiang Disease Control and Prevention Center on Tuesday that he needed to be tested for COVID-19. He was then taken to a hospital in Shaoxing for nucleic acid tests the next day and tested positive for the virus.

The man and eight others who had close contact with him are now under quarantine, the Zhejiang health commission said.