BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese authorities have lifted a quarantine order that was imposed on a remote town of 10,000 people to contain a deadly outbreak of pneumonic plague, according to a report on Sunday.
Local authorities removed the order on Saturday evening after no new cases of the plague were detected in a week, the Beijing News daily said.
The outbreak of the highly virulent disease killed three people in Ziketan, a town in a Tibetan area of Qinghai province in China's mountainous northwest.
Residents of Ziketan contacted by AFP Wednesday said some people had tried to flee the quarantine zone, which covered an area of 3,500 square kilometres (1,400 square miles), centred on the town.
But officials Thursday told Xinhua news agency that no one had escaped from the zone and that no new cases had been reported.
The World Health Organization says pneumonic plague is the most virulent but least common form of plague. The mortality rate can be high, but prompt antibiotic treatment is effective.
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