Millions of people were confined to their homes in China on Monday because the country tried to contain its largest coronavirus outbreak in months including seven positive tests found in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in late 2019.
China reported 55 new locally transmitted cases on Monday as an epidemic of the fast-spreading Delta variant reached over 20 cities in additional than a dozen provinces.
The Wuhan cluster came after the official daily tally was released, but it had been confirmed by state media which said the infections had been traced to a railway station .
“The seven were identified as migrant workers,” Xinhua reported, citing Covid-19 prevention and control officials.
Major cities including Beijing have now tested many residents while cordoning off residential compounds and placing close contacts under quarantine.
Authorities within the capital met and agreed on the necessity to “raise vigilance, take strict precautions and defend (the city) to the death, sparing no expense,” in comments put out by the Beijing government.
Elsewhere, over 1.2 million residents were placed under strict lockdown for subsequent three days within the city center of Zhuzhou in Hunan on Monday, as authorities roll out a citywide testing and vaccination campaign, consistent with a politician statement.
“The situation remains grim and sophisticated ,” the Zhuzhou government said.
Read More: Chinese cities communities test millions as virus cases surge
China had previously boasted of its success in bringing domestic cases right down to virtually zero after the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, allowing the economy to rebound.
But the newest outbreak, linked to a cluster within the city of Nanjing where nine cleaners at a world airport tested positive on July 20, is threatening that success with quite 360 domestic cases reported within the past fortnight .
In the tourist destination of Zhangjiajie, famed for its national forest park, an epidemic spread last month among theatre patrons who then brought the virus back to their homes round the country.
Zhangjiajie locked down all 1.5 million residents on Friday.
Officials are urgently seeking people that have recently travelled from Nanjing or Zhangjiajie, and have urged tourists to not visit areas where cases are found.
Meanwhile, Beijing has blocked tourists from entering the capital during the height summer holiday travel season. Only “essential travellers” with negative macromolecule tests are going to be allowed to enter after the invention of a couple of cases among residents who had returned from Zhangjiajie.
Top city officials on Sunday involved residents “not to go away Beijing unless necessary”.
The capital’s Changping district locked down 41,000 people in nine housing communities last week.
Fresh cases were also reported on Monday within the popular tourist destination of Hainan also as in flood-ravaged Henan province, national health authorities said.
