CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Friday, August 28, 2020 | 5 CHINA Xinjiang making best Harvest of opportunity effort to contain virus’ spread, health chief says
By MAO WEIHUA in Urumqi early as possible, he added. and CUI JIA By the end of Wednesday, Xin jiang had 107 confirmed COVID Since July 15, the Xinjiang Uygur 19 cases and 38 asymptomatic autonomous region has been striv cases, with 2,506 people still ing to contain the spread of COV under medical observation. No ID19 to protect the lives and newly confirmed COVID19 cases health of people of all ethnic have been reported in Xinjiang groups, the chief health official of since Aug 16. the region said on Thursday. What’s more, the region wasted “The region has taken decisive no time investigating the origins measures to cut off the spread of of the virus, swiftly cutting off pos the virus,” Mutalif Roz, director of sible channels of transmission and the region’s health commission, screening close contacts and put said at a news conference held in ting them under medical observa Urumqi, the region’s capital. “We tion, Mutalif said. stick to targeted and lawbased To ensure sufficient daily food measures in COVID19 prevention supplies for all people while they and control, and prioritize screen are staying at home as a part of the ings and disinfections of key pla effort to contain the virus, the ces to eliminate the risks of virus region has ramped up the produc transmission and spreading.” tion of vegetables, fruit, meat, To contain the epidemic, the eggs, dairy products, grains and region has suspended gatherings other essentials. Measures have and group activities, and closed up been taken to crack down on mis residential areas in the worsthit behavior like price gouging, areas. It has also intensified preven hoarding, profiteering and mak tion and control efforts at train sta ing and selling substandard goods A man tries to pick up seaweed carried ashore by waves churned up by Typhoon Bavi in Dalian, Liaoning province, on Thursday. Bavi tions, bus stations and airports by to ensure that markets are ade made landfall on the North Pyongan province of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Thursday morning, also bringing gales and checking body temperatures and quately supplied and prices stay heavy rain to neighboring areas in Northeast China. LYU WENZHENG / FOR CHINA DAILY mobile phonegenerated health stable, he said. codes, and redirecting inbound “During Eid alAdha, or the ‘fes travelers for medical observation at tival of sacrifice’, we increased dedicated facilities, he said. lamb and beef supplies across the “We call on residents in Urumqi region to fully satisfy the demand to refrain from making nonessen of people of all ethnic groups, Researchers tial trips out of the city, and those making sure all consumers can who have to take such trips must access inexpensive, quality meat,” Hong Kong prepares take nucleic acid tests before leaving Mutalif said. discover to prevent the virus from spreading He added that besides releasing beyond the city,” Mutalif said. epidemic information in a timely On July 15, a 24yearold woman manner, the region has also how plants from Urumqi tested positive for opened a 24hour hotline to pro for citywide testing the virus, making her the first vide timely responses to public locally transmitted COVID19 case and media concerns. play defense in Xinjiang since February. Based Schools in Xinjiang have on epidemiological investigations delayed the autumn semester and Over 60 mainland healthcare staff have said in a joint statement on By ZHOU WENTING in Shanghai and lab tests, this round of out will hold classes online, according Thursday that they will launch [email protected] break was associated with a gath to the local education authority. arrived in the SAR to aid examinations community campaigns to ering, and the confirmed The delay applies to all kinder encourage residents to take free A Shanghai research team has infections and asymptomatic cas gartens, elementary schools, jun By GU MENGYAN in Hong Kong a slow dip from a previous weekly tests. discovered the mechanism through es are mostly in Urumqi. ior and senior high schools in the [email protected] average of 49, Undersecretary for The more residents register for which plants respond to threats To help the city carry out high region, with online classes due to Food and Health Chui Takyi said the tests, the more likely and from pathogens, which could pave quality nucleic acid testing, the start Sept. 1. Hong Kong is gearing up for at a news briefing. timely local transmission chains the way for creating plant resist State Council Joint Prevention and The regional education depart citywide free coronavirus testing Starting Friday, patrons are can be cut off, they said, also cit ance to pathogencaused diseases Control Mechanism sent 21 testing ment will provide teaching resour as social distancing rules are to allowed to eat at Hong Kong res ing multiple untraceable cases while maintaining a high crop teams from 12 provinces and coor ces for online classes, while be partially eased starting on Fri taurants from 5 am to 9 pm, three reported on a daily basis. yield, scientists said. dinated professionals from four schools are required to make day. hours more than during a previ A restaurant worker surnamed According to the paper, which thirdparty institutions to conduct plans for online teaching and More than 5,000 medical pro ous ban on dinein services. Yip said she will sign up for the was published on the website of testing in Xinjiang. It has helped to organize classes. fessionals have signed up to Cinemas, beauty salons and test, although her employer had USbased journal Cell on Monday, lift Urumqi’s testing capability to assist during the twoweek test selected sports venues can subsidized one test two weeks scientists found that when the plant 800,000 people per day to ensure Contact the writers at ing plan, which will accept online reopen with limited capacity and ago for all the employees. detects the presence of a pathogen, the infections can be detected as [email protected] bookings on Saturday before stringent infection control meas “It’s not only for us, but for din certain proteins near the cell wall kicking off next Tuesday, accord ures. People are exempted from ers at our place,” she said. “People will respond and the cell’s nucleus ing to Secretary for the Civil Ser mandatory mask wearing when have to remove their masks when will initiate an appropriate defense vice Patrick Nip Takkuen, who is exercising outdoors. eating. It’s better to ensure they by adjusting which genes are acti Happy birthday coordinating the testing. A Food and Health Bureau won’t get the virus from us.” vated. More than 60 mainland doc spokesman said the public must During Hong Kong’s third COV The team was made up of Chi tors and nurses have arrived in accept a new normal that sporad ID19 outbreak wave, there have nese and foreign scientists at the the city to help with the testing, ic cases and clusters will occur been at least seven restaurant Shanghai Center for Plant Stress which may involve millions of from time to time, and that it’s linked clusters that include more Biology, part of the Center for Excel people. not feasible to wait until there are than 15 confirmed patients. lence in Molecular Plant Sciences After inspecting a temporary no new cases at all before relax Taxi driver Lee Waiman told Affiliated with the Chinese Acade testing center at Queen Elizabeth ing social distancing rules. China Daily he and his family my of Sciences. Stadium on Wednesday, Nip reas However, other leisure venues members will definitely register Before their research, scientists sured Hong Kong residents that such as bars, gyms and karaoke for the test and called on the gov understood that throughout evolu all the settings are in line with lounges will remain closed. A ban ernment to arrange more regular tion, plants have developed mecha infection control requirements. on public gatherings of more tests for taxi drivers. nisms to perceive the presence of a Hong Kong reported 21 new than two people has also been Lee’s concern echoed an appeal pathogen threat and mount COVID19 cases on Thursday. extended to Sept 3. made on Thursday by the Hong responses to deter or eliminate the Eighteen of those cases were Chui added the government Kong Medical Association, which invading organism. But how the infected locally, and four of those will be cautious about a further suggested the government contin information travels into the cells 18 have an unknown origin. relaxation of social distancing ue with its free testing program remained unclear. The city currently has 4,755 measures as unsourced cases, tailored for highrisk groups such The scientists also found that the confirmed infections. The deaths which accounted for 30 percent as taxi drivers, domestic helpers route used to transmit information of an 81yearold woman and a of the past week’s count, indicate and eldercare workers. inside the plant cell can be 70yearold man on Thursday that hidden local transmission The association also cautioned “hijacked” by pathogens. Panda Shun Shun enjoys a birthday treat in Hainan Tropical pushed the city’s COVID19 fatali chains still exist. that a negative reading of the test Some proteins from plant viruses Wildlife Park and Botanical Garden in Haikou, Hainan province, ties to 81. In an effort to bring the city does not mean Hong Kong people and pathogenic bacteria can mimic on Thursday. Shun Shun and his brother Gong Gong both turned 7. Between Aug 20 and Aug 26, wide voluntary virus testing to its can drop their guard and relax the behavior of the plant proteins, LUO YUNFEI / CHINA NEWS SERVICE the city recorded an average of 21 fullest effect, more than 80 pro their personal antiepidemic prac hampering the activation of defense new infections per day, signaling establishment district councilors tices. responses and tilting the balance in favor of the invading microbe, said Rosa Lozano Duran, a leading XIAOKANG@GRASSROOTS researcher on the team from Spain. “The finding that different kinds “It seems like people’s lives are not Liu Song, vicepresident of Aliba of pathogens have evolved similar impacted much.” ba, a major participant, said on Aug strategies to take advantage of this AI helping Beijing become ‘smarter’ At present, around 100,000 college 19 that Alibaba Cloud will provide plant pathway and utilize it to sup students have come back to Beijing, full services for the “brain”. press plant defense in turn proves By DU JUAN transportation, waste treatment, According to the government plan, and the number has been growing at Hua Xiansheng, head of the “city the core role that this pathway plays [email protected] the environment, health and com the screens will cover 48 topics, a pace of about 10,000 a day. brain” lab at Alibaba, said in a pre in transmitting the information of munity management. including the aforementioned catego The “city brain” has also contrib vious interview that the core idea is external threats from viruses, bac As China’s science and technolo “The information and realtime ries as well as public safety, city man uted to this process to make every to use AI and big data to mine the teria and fungi,” said Duran, who gy innovation center, Beijing is conditions of every construction agement and sharing technologies. one feel like Yuan. information that is accumulating has worked with the Shanghai becoming a “smarter” city as the site can be shown,” said Cao Lijie, Of those covered topics, 15 have The number of returning students every day in the city. based center since 2015. municipal authority increasingly head of a management center of the already been established, nine are is vividly shown in realtime on a “Before we had cloud computing Duran said the team will seek col uses artificial intelligence, big data construction committee of Haidian. being developed in the “brain” and screen with information like health technology and AI technology, it was laboration to find applications for and cloud computing to provide a “The information for qualifications, 24 are in the planning stages. conditions, while a second later the hard to process the huge amount of the research results. wellorganized and supported liv construction permits, the number Yuan Shichao, a student who has screen displays epidemic informa data to find the value in that informa “Pathogens cause dramatic losses ing space for the public. of staff on site and all the machines come back to Beijing to continue his tion for communities in the city. tion,” Hua said. “Today we have cloud in crop production worldwide, pos People sometimes describe the being used for the projects can all be fall semester in college, said he was According to the authority, the computing and much more comput ing a threat to food security. Results smooth order of a wellrunning city shown on the screen.” worried and curious about how the “brain” can focus on key public safe ing power, and AI technology has obtained in this work suggested like a human with a brain. Few know The goal of this system is to make city and campus looked while he ty issues by inputting huge amounts made big progress in deep learning. that it is possible to increase the that Beijing has an actual “city construction projects “smarter” by was in his hometown because he of data, which gives authorities a It gives us a tool to analyze that data.” strength of plant defense responses brain” located in an office building monitoring safety applications, has been away since January. strong base to make accurate deci Lin Jianhua, deputy head of Hai to attacking microbes without in Haidian district, the center of the machine management and pollu “However, it was surprisingly in sions to control infections and dian district, said by accelerating the affecting productivity in the capital’s hightech growth. tion conditions of the sites in order order, whether in the train station, resume work in a smooth manner. worldclass hightech industry, Hai absence of pathogens, hence poten In the display area of the “brain”, to make better decisions. Another subways or campus. All the epi The project, which was launched dian will make its own contribution tially improving plant health with there are many screens, big and screen nearby can display realtime demic prevention measures have last year, is led by the government to the country’s economic growth out compromising plant growth,” small, showing information about transportation data in the city. been conducted smoothly,” he said. with participating companies. and prosperity in people’s lives. she said.