SHIJIAZHUANG — Following the important instruction of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan has inspected North China's Hebei province, demanding efforts to curb the recently emerged spread of COVID-19 in the province as soon as possible.

From Jan 2 to 10 am on Jan 8, Hebei reported 127 new locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Sun made the inspection tour from Jan 6 to Jan 8, paying visits to a village in the province's capital city of Shijiazhuang, a quarantine site, a local community, an epidemic control center, and hospitals to learn about local conditions.

Sun also had meetings with local governments and experts, calling for resolute measures to curb the spread of the outbreak.

The cluster infections in Hebei developed fast, with 85.5 percent of the infected from rural areas and many of them are the aged, according to officials.

Sun demanded local Party committees and governments to act swiftly and strengthen their efforts in personnel monitoring, nucleic acid testing, patient admission and treating, source tracing, and material support.