Medical workers collect swab samples from residents of a Covid-19 testing site in Qiaoxi Township in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei Province, on Jan. 7, 2021.
Yang Shiyao | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
BEIJING – Mainland China reported the first new death from Covid-19 since May on Thursday as authorities tried to control a surge in cases outside of Beijing.
A woman in Hebei Province died on Wednesday afternoon, state media reported. Her illness was severe and she had pre-existing health problems.
The province surrounds Beijing and began a rapid surge in coronavirus cases earlier this month. In less than two weeks, authorities have locked Shijiazhuang and other parts of Hebei Province to prevent the disease from spreading.
Hebei reported 81 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the number of current cases to 463. The northernmost province of Heilongjiang reported 43 new confirmed cases on Wednesday.
The National Health Commission recorded the death in its daily report on the local coronavirus situation on Wednesday. This is the first addition to the total toll since May 2020.
4,365 people died of corona viruses on mainland China. The first reported death from Covid-19 was on January 11, 2020 in Wuhan City, where the disease first appeared in late 2019.
A team from the World Health Organization arrived in Wuhan on Thursday to work with Chinese scientists to investigate the origin of the virus.
The Chinese government has resisted the implications that Covid-19 came from China. After the peak of the outbreak in the country early last year, authorities traced later cases to foreign sources.