China’s southwest near Myanmar will test all residents for coronavirus following a surge in infections, the government announced Saturday.
The government said that all businesses, schools and markets in Jiangcheng County in Yunnan province will close Monday and Tuesday while nucleic acid testing is carried out. Travel into and out of the county will be banned.
Yunnan has reported a surge in infections traced to nearby Myanmar, where a military government that seized power in February is battling to curb a spike in cases. Beijing has tightened border controls.
Jiangcheng County, southeast of the city of Pu’er, is on China’s border with Vietnam and Laos. It doesn’t directly border Myanmar.
On Saturday, the Yunnan health agency reported five new infections, all in people it said lived recently in Myanmar.
That increased Yunan’s current total of people who are being treated for confirmed infections to 297, including 218 believed to have been infected abroad.