Chengdu slows down amid new cases

Wang Zhe had a pleasant surprise when he called a taxi at Chengdudong Railway Station in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province on Tuesday.

"It usually takes about one hour. But there were only two passengers in front of me and it took me only several minutes to catch a taxi," said the middle-aged man who had returned from a trip to Guanghan, a small city about 40 kilometers away.

Wang Guizhong, the 51-year-old taxi driver who took Wang Zhen to his destination, waited more than two hours in the station before picking up his passenger.

"Due to the three new local COVID-19 cases (in Chengdu) on Tuesday, there is a sharp decline in the number of passengers in the station," said a worker at the taxi dispatch center of the station.

Wang usually earns between 160 to 170 yuan ($25 to 26) in four hours. However, he earned only 63 yuan from 8 am to noon.

"Because of the outbreak, many streets are deserted. So I have to wait for passengers in the station," he added.

Five locally transmitted cases and an asymptomatic case were reported in Chengdu, Sichuan province on Tuesday and Wednesday, said He Xiao, deputy chief of the Chengdu municipal health commission, at a news conference on Wednesday evening.

Three of the six cases were members of a family, including a 7-year-old boy that had spent over a week in Hunan province. They visited Changde, Hunan from Friday to Sunday after touring Zhangjiajie, also in Hunan.

Another confirmed case is one of the family's friends, who traveled together to Hunan.

The asymptomatic patient is a 36-year-old employee of Chengdu Tianfu Airport who took the same flight asthe family from Taohuayuan Airport in Changde to Chengdu Tianfu Airport in Chengdu on Sunday.

They are all being treated at a designated hospital.