China's Wuxi tightens Covid-19 curbs as new clusters emerge

BEIJING - Wuxi, a Chinese manufacturing hub, tightened its Covid-19 control measures on Sunday (July 3) after reporting 31 new coronavirus cases, as the country continues battling clusters of the disease under a zero-COVID policy.

The city in the Yangtze Delta on China's central coast, halted operations at many public venues located underground, including shops and supermarkets. Dine-in services in restaurants were suspended, and the government advised people to work from home.

Mainland China reported 473 new Covid-19 cases for July 2, of which 104 were symptomatic and 369 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.

That compares with 268 new cases a day earlier - 72 symptomatic and 196 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

There were no new deaths, keeping the nation's death toll to 5,226. As of Saturday, mainland China had confirmed 225,851 cases with symptoms.

China's capital, Beijing, reported no new local cases, while the financial centre, Shanghai, reported two local symptomatic cases, according to data from the local governments. Both cities reported zero cases the previous day, either symptomatic or asymptomatic.

Most of the cases on July 2 were from Anhui province, where reported 61 symptomatic and 231 asymptomatic cases.

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