It is not yet known how many in China are fully vaccinated, although authorities claim some 1.6 billion doses have been administered so far
Wuhan, the city of 11 million people that shot into the spotlight after the coronavirus was first detected there in 2019, is once again in the news after a handful of positive coronavirus cases were detected there.
In one of the biggest outbreaks in months, 300 cases were detected in 10 days in the 15 affected provinces. Mass testing measures and lockdown restrictions have been rolled out by the government.
China had controlled mainly the virus within its borders but this new spread, which started among workers at a busy airport in Nanjing, is worrying.
The announcement in Wuhan came as China reported 90 new virus cases on Tuesday.
China had controlled mainly the virus within its borders but this new spread, which started among workers at a busy airport in Nanjing, is worrying. Authorities have tested the 9.2 million residents of Nanjing three times and imposed lockdown on hundreds of thousands of people.
The focus, however, has now shifted to popular tourist destination Zhangjiajie in Hunan province, where travellers from Nanjing had visited recently. “Zhangjiajie has now become the new ground zero for China’s epidemic spread,” Zhong Nanshan, China’s leading respiratory disease expert, told reporters. The virus has also reached the capital Beijing while a total of 15 provinces have now confirmed cases. Cases in 12 of the provinces are connected to an outbreak that began in Nanjing.
It is not yet known how many in China are fully vaccinated, although authorities claim some 1.6 billion doses have been administered so far.
In Zhuzhou, in central Hunan province, more than a million people have been told not to leave home for three days.
Cases of the variant first emerged in July in Nanjing airport, among workers who had cleaned a plane that arrived from Russia. Authorities promptly tested 9.2 million residents of Nanjing and imposed a lockdown on hundreds of thousands of people.
All of Beijing’s air, bus and travel links to areas with positive cases have been cut. All tourists have also been banned from entering the capital, and officials are only allowing “essential travellers” with negative Covid tests to enter.
The virus has also reached Wuhan, in Hubei province, the Chinese city where Covid-19 first emerged, with seven people testing positive for the virus. According to Chinese state media, the city had seen zero locally transmitted infections since June 2020.
China is also battling a rise in cases in Zhengzhou in northern Henan province, which saw devastating floods just last month, as well as Hainan island to the south of the mainland.
The Global Times newspaper has called the outbreak the “most serious since the Wuhan outbreak.”
