It’s like a sad ending in a blockbuster movie; it’s unwanted and tears have been shed.But after months of trying to make it work, the credits are rolling for United Video Ashburton and they are closing the doors.Owner Kevin Stewart,…

China is rushing to build a massive quarantine camp that can house more than 4,000 people, after an outbreak of COVID-19 this month that has left tens of millions of people under strict lockdown.

The quarantine camp is located on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei province, which surrounds the country's capital, Beijing.

China has largely contained the spread of the virus, with much of the country returning to normal.

However, a sudden rise in cases has alarmed officials and raised concerns ahead of the Lunar New Year, the county's most important annual festival, during which hundreds of millions of people are expected to travel to visit family members.

READ MORE: COVID-19 'superspreader' in northeast China linked to 102 infections

Officials in Shijiazhuang, where the outbreak is centred, have initiated mass testing and strict lockdowns, moving entire villages into centralised quarantine facilities in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.

The new quarantine camp will house close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients, as authorities continue an extensive contact tracing and testing program.

It was originally planned to house 3,000 people, but has since been expanded to a capacity of 4,160.

More than 4,000 construction workers performed "six days' and nights' work" to complete the first phase, said Shijiazhuang Deputy Mayor Meng Xianghong on Tuesday.

Authorities began construction on January 13 and the first section of the camp is now complete and ready for use, while construction continues on the second phase, according to state-owned broadcaster CCTV.

Each prefabricated room is expected to measure 18 square metres and will come with an en-suite bathroom and shower, desks, chairs, beds, Wi-Fi, and a television set, according to CCTV.

The ambitious task is reminiscent of earlier efforts during the initial stages of the pandemic, during which authorities built several medical facilities from scratch, including a 1,000-bed hospital in just 10 days.

On Tuesday, China reported 103 new confirmed cases and 58 asymptomatic infections, which are counted separately, spread out across four provinces. Hebei province now has a total of 818 active locally transmitted cases, and more than 200 asymptomatic infections, according to the provincial health commission.

Last Wednesday, a patient died in Hebei – the country's first COVID-19 related death in 242 days.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 88,557, while the official death toll is 4,635.

In an effort to contain the outbreak, authorities placed Shijiazhuang under lockdown on January 8, with all 11 million residents barred from leaving the city.

More than 20,000 citizens from 12 villages in Shijiangzhuang have since been relocated to other quarantine sites as a preventative measure, Chinese state media outlet CGTN reported last week.

To date, more than 17 million people have been tested in Hebei, with authorities currently undertaking a second round of mass testing in Shijiazhuang and the cities of Xingtai and Langfang.

Hebei authorities are now urging residents to stay at home, with officials sent to urban and rural areas to enforce measures and ensure people aren't travelling across the province and into Beijing.

In response to the perceived threat, Beijing authorities have stepped up testing and screening efforts after cases were confirmed in the capital's outermost Daxing district, and announced on Wednesday they would close two nearby metro stations until further notice.

In northeastern Jilin province, 102 cases have been linked to a so-called "superspreader," a salesman who travelled from his home province of Heilongjiang.

When the photos popped up on her phone, a Browns Bay resident could not believe what she was looking at.The house she’d left just a couple of hours earlier had a massive hole through it – and a car “parked” pretty much vertically…

Thousands are expected to turn out to events across Hawke’s Bay this weekend but some may miss out because of ticket scams.Official tickets for Six60’s Saturday show in Hastings, which is expected to draw up to 2000, were still…

A man has recounted the terrifying moment he saw a car come “hooning” around a corner on the wrong side of the road towards his vehicle. The West Harbour resident, who doesn’t want to be named, said he was driving home from work…

A New Zealand politician is offering top level intervention for Australian kiddy supergroup The Wiggles whose upcoming tour is in jeopardy after failing to secure quarantine slots.More than 40,000 tickets have been sold to their…

“Beware the mongrel Mayor” and other disparaging comments about his colleagues may not land Dunedin city councillor Lee Vandervis in hot water.In a lengthy blog that borrows from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comedic science…

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will this morning give her first public address of the year – speaking to her caucus colleagues and media at Labour’s annual retreat in Nelson. She is expected to take stock of last year’s historic…

Thousands of dollars have been raised in support of the two victims of a wrong-way crash on Wellington’s motorway on Tuesday. Genna Te Kahika was driving with her brother Jeremy early Tuesday morning when their car was hit by another…

Amanda Gorman, the first-ever youth poet laureate in the US, called for Americans to "leave behind a country better than the one we were left" and unify together as she spoke at President Joe Biden's inauguration.

"Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming President, only to find herself reciting for one," Ms Gorman, 22, said.

Nodding to the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol earlier this month, Ms Gorman said, "We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it."

READ MORE: Kamala Harris opens new chapter in US politics as first female Vice President

"Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated," she said.

Ms Gorman previously told CNN that she drew inspiration for the poem from the two poems read at former president Barack Obama's inauguration – Richard Blanco's 2013 'One Today' and Elizabeth Alexander's 2009 'Praise Song for the Day' – and writers, such as Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass, whom she feels have spoken to the ideals of a nation.

Ms Gorman, who regularly draws from current political events in her work, also spoke of the need for social change: "We learned that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what 'just is' isn't always justice."

"We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colours, characters and conditions of man," Gorman said. "And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all."

Born and raised in Los Angeles by a single-mother and sixth-grade English teacher, Gorman started writing poems when she was a child, but found it terrifying to perform due to a speech impediment. She overcame that fear by drawing confidence from former President Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr., and practices songs from the Broadway musical 'Hamilton'.

She was halfway through writing the inauguration poem when she saw the pro-Trump mob storm the very same Capitol at which she spoke Wednesday, and she previously told CNN she would attempt to "communicate a message of joining together and crossing divides."