China fears Covid wind blows in from North Korea

Chinese officials have urged the residents along the Yalu River separating the two countries to shut their windows.

Workers and volunteers look on in a compound where residents are tested for the Covid-19 pandemic in Shanghai. (File Photo | AFP)

Officials in a Chinese city on the border with North Korea reportedly suspect the wind blowing in from their secretive neighbour.

According to a report in Bloomberg, cases have been rising, despite a lockdown, in Dandong, a city of 2.19 million.

North Korea and China share a porous 1,300-kilometer border, in some areas separated by the Yalu river that is less than one kilometer wide in parts of Dandong.

North Korea is currently witnessing a massive spike in cases of COVID-19. North Korea had been denying the presence of infections but the massive spikes had led the authorities to acknowledge the virus.

The alarming increase in cases despite the prompt pandemic measures within the Chinese borders has left the Chinese officials at a roadblock.

Local officials, unable to point out the source of the outbreak, have urged the residents along the Yalu River separating the two countries to shut their windows.

The bizarre recommendation has left the health experts baffled. “I’ve never heard of this happening before, where COVID-19 particles travel such great distances,” Leo Poon, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong, told VICE World News.

Unlike several other countries battling the virus outbreaks, China has been determined to completely eradicate the virus within the country.

Meanwhile, China’s two largest cities, Shanghai and Minhang, are tightening some Covid measures again, just days after loosening them as the virus appeared under control.