China places village under lockdown after coronavirus outbreak

China has placed a village under lockdown following a coronavirus outbreak likely tied to recent weddings, according to multiple reports.

Entry and exit were barred from Xiaoguozhuang, located in Hebei province, and it is now the only “high risk” area of China, The Washington Post reported. Authorities reported 44 new cases in Hebei, of which 30 were asymptomatic.

Fourteen of the cases may have been linked to weddings held near the village, the Post reports. Eleven cases of symptomatic COVID-19 were reported in Xiaoguozhuang, while another three are reported in Xingtai in southern Hebei.

China, where the outbreak originated, has largely been able to contain the virus but is dealing with a rise in locally transmitted cases and new outbreaks, the Post notes.

The country approved a coronavirus vaccine from state-backed pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm late last year and is scrambling to fully inoculate 50 million people ahead of the Lunar New Year in February. The holiday usually attracts hundreds of millions of people to more rural parts of the country.

China has reported 87,183 COVID-19 cases, and 4,634 coronavirus related deaths, according to The Associated Press.