People and cars in Dongning, Heilongjiang province, will not be allowed to leave the city from Monday

Donning and Suifenhe, two Chinese cities bordering Russia in Heilongjiang Province, have been newly diagnosed with COVID-19, marking the start of their wartime status. Dongning announced on December 12 that the city will be closed at 0 am on December 13, banning public transport, cars and people from leaving the city.

Road passenger transport, buses and taxis will be temporarily suspended, and self-use vehicles, including electric vehicles and tricycles, will be banned from the roads, according to a statement on WeChat, the publicity department of the CPC dongning committee. Pregnant women, major diseases and other people who need to go out in an emergency shall be allowed to pass through temporarily and be reported afterwards.

According to the announcement, only one family member in each medium-risk area is allowed to go out to buy daily necessities once every two days for no more than two hours each time. Food delivery, express delivery, store delivery and other items shall be disinfected by community watchmen and distributed uniformly.

In addition, local schools, kindergartens and supplementary educational institutions have been temporarily closed, and places of business and businesses providing entertainment and non-essential supplies have been closed or suspended. Food and beverage premises are temporarily used in the take-out business. Key institutions for the elderly and places of supervision are under closed management.

Tahe County in The Greater Khingan Mountains in Heilongjiang province also reported a new case of asymptomatic infected person who had been imported from outside Russia. The infected person had tested negative five times and the local state of wartime prevention and control had been activated.

Dongning is adjacent to Suifenhe, both of which are border port cities between China and Russia. They are also county-level cities under the jurisdiction of Mudanjiang City in Heilongjiang Province.