Beijing, Sep 7 (PTI) China's Sichuan province has banned the entry of unauthorised people to earthquake zones and ordered daily testing of survivors and rescue workers as it struggled to battle COVID-19 even as the death toll in this week's earthquake has jumped to 74 with another 26 people still missing.

The 6.8 magnitude quake that struck Sichuan province on Monday caused widespread destruction to homes in the Ganze Tibetan Autonomous Region and shook buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu, whose 21 million citizens are under a strict COVID-19 lockdown.

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Following the quake, police and health workers refused to allow anxious residents of apartment buildings out, adding to anger over the government's strict “zero-COVID policy” mandating lockdowns, quarantines and other restrictions.

Around 259 people were injured in the quake and about 1,000 people were trapped by a dammed lake that had formed after the earthquake, officials said on Wednesday. Besides heavy drought, the province also grappled with the rising COVID-19 cases.

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The disaster has prompted the authorities to place Luding county and the nearby tourist hotspot of Hailuogou under temporary restrictions, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday.

No unauthorised entry is allowed for people and vehicles, including members of the public volunteering for rescue efforts, the report said. Also entry permits issued to rescue personnel must be accompanied by a negative PCR test result within 24 hours, a green health code, and no travel history in cities with COVID-19 cases, according to the notice. Rescuers must be tested for COVID-19 every 24 hours.

Quake survivors must also undergo daily COVID-19 testing, show their travel history and register visits to indoor or crowded places with an app, the report said. Local residents returning to the quake zone must submit additional approval papers from the local community authorities, it said.

The earthquake leveled a large area of housing in a township in Luding. Local weather forecasters said they expected heavy rainfall in the quake zone over the next three days. Severe landslides caused by the earthquake in the mountainous region blocked two rivers, forming a dammed lake. About 1,000 people from Wandong and Ziyachang villages have been trapped as a result, local media reported.

The earthquake has caused the displacement of 13,232 residents and another 10,657 residents evacuated to safer places. Nearly 7,000 rescuers have been deployed to the disaster zone, state media CCTV reported.

Sichuan province is located adjacent to Tibet. The Tibetan plateau is known to be prone to heavy earthquakes as it sits right over the place where the tectonic Eurasian and Indian plates meet, often colliding with huge force.

More than 69,000 people were killed when an 8.2 quake struck the province in 2008 and a magnitude 7 quake claimed 200 lives in 2013.

Rescuers are using homemade drones and satellites to restore communications and provide remote sensing and meteorological services, state-run Global Times reported.

Chinese seismologists warned that the epicentre and nearby regions in Sichuan have to prepare for possible secondary disasters after the quake such as mudslides and landslides in the following days and even years.

Liu Hong, head of the bureau of culture, radio, television and tourism in Garze, who was at the frontline in Hailuogou at the epicentre, told the Global Times that the road in and out of Hailuogou had collapsed in the quake and communication had also been cut off. More than 200 people are trapped in the national glacier forest park located in Hailuogou, state-run CCTV reported.

Liu said the stranded tourists are currently fine, and there is no impact on the glacier in the park. The extent of any damage to the tourism infrastructure is being assessed.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)