Beijing | On Saturday, China was trying to contain what appeared to be the worst wave of COVID-19 contamination in several months, and authorities blamed the increase in cases on the delta variant, which is now in 14 provinces.
In total, the country had 328 new cases of infection in July, roughly the number from February to June, and it particularly affected cities such as Nanjing (east), not far from Shanghai, or the tourist city of Zhangjiajie, in. Hunan Province (south)
“The main strain now circulating is the delta variant, which presents a much more difficult challenge in terms of prevention and control,” a National Health Commission (NHC) spokesperson explained during a quick point.
He appeared at Nanjing airport earlier this month, in front of nine employees responsible for cleaning the cabin of a plane from Russia, and the alternative quickly spread to other parts of the country.
This speed is not only associated with the severe infection of the variant, but also the peak of the country’s tourist season, with the extensive use of air transportation by the Chinese, He Qinghua, an official with the NHC, told reporters.
Nanjing authorities ordered not to open all cultural venues and tourist attractions on Saturday, due to an increase in nationwide dispatch.
Hundreds of thousands of people are now trapped in Jiangsu Province, with Nanjing as its capital, while the city has subjected its population of 9.2 million to two parades.
An official statement said that the tourist city of Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province, where a handful of people infected with the coronavirus attended a theater performance, confined its 1.5 million residents and closed all tourist attractions on Friday.
On the outskirts of Beijing, in the Changping District, where two patients were discovered, 41,000 people were placed in confinement on Thursday. These are the first local cases recorded in Beijing, which has a population of more than 20 million, in six months.
In Zhengzhou, Henan Province, which was recently hit by deadly floods, the discovery of the first asymptomatic case triggered a massive testing campaign for the city’s 10 million residents on Saturday.
If the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan (centre) at the end of 2019, China has largely controlled the epidemic thanks to containment operations and mobile applications for tracking movements or mandatory quarantine on arrival.
Life has been near normal since the spring of 2020, and the country has reported only two deaths from COVID-19 since April of last year.