CHINA STEPS UP MEASURES TO PROTECT CAPITAL AS DELTA VARIANT SPREADS

Sat 07 August 2021:

After months of China having COVID-19 cases relatively under control, the coronavirus in it’s new variant called Delta variant spreading across multiple cities in the country, including the pandemic’s original epicentre of Wuhan.

China stepped up measures to protect its capital, Beijing, as an uptick in coronavirus cases driven by the more infectious

The National Health Commission reported on Saturday 107 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland for 6 August, compared with 124 a day earlier.

The latest outbreak is believed to have begun in the eastern city of Nanjing in Jiangsu province on July 20, after nine airport cleaners tested positive.

It has now spread to around 40 cities.

The Nanjing outbreak has become “a new mode of domestic transmission”, according to prominent Chinese epidemiologist, Zhang Wenhua, from the Huashan Hospital of Fudan University.

“The spread of the epidemic in many provinces has caused great public anxiety about the uncertainty of the future,” he wrote on his Weibo social media account.

Of the new infections, 75 were locally transmitted, the health authority said. That compares with 80 local cases a day earlier. Most of the local cases were in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Those currently outside Beijing in higher-risk areas should temporarily postpone their return, and others should provide a negative Covid-19 test, according to details of a Saturday meeting by local officials reported by the Beijing Daily. Epidemic prevention measures at railways, highways and airports should be strengthened, they said.

Some local governments have been called out by Beijing for lowering their guard, leading to the spread of the Delta variant from multiple sources.

According to China’s National Health Commission, 1.7 billion doses of its locally-made Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines have been administered as of August 3.

The Commission said the vaccines are “effective” against the Delta variant, however, China has not released detailed scientific data to confirm this.

FILE PHOTO

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