millions of people confined, massive testing and travel restrictions

Millions of people were confined to their homes in China on Monday as the country tries to contain its biggest coronavirus outbreak in months with massive testing and travel restrictions.

China has reported 55 new cases of coronavirus from local broadcast. The rapidly spreading delta variant epidemic has already reached more than 20 cities and more than a dozen provinces.

Local governments in major cities, including Beijing, have led test millions of residents, while they cordoned off the residential premises and quarantined the contacts of those infected.

Zhuzhou city (center) in Hunan province on Monday ordered more than 1.2 million people to stay at home in strict isolation for the next three days, while a city-wide testing and vaccination campaign is carried out, according to an official statement.

“The situation remains dark and complicated“said Zhuzhou government.

Beijing had so far succeeded in reducing local cases to practically zero. But the latest epidemic, linked to an epidemic in Nanjing where nine cleaners from an international airport tested positive on July 20, causing more than 360 cases in the past two weeks.

Bud in a theater

In Zhangjiajie, a seaside resort near Zhuzhou, there was an epidemic last month among theater spectators, who then brought the virus to their homes across the country.

Authorities are now trying to locate around 5,000 people who attended the functions and then returned to their hometowns.

One performance had welcomed around 2000 people, according to reports.

All attractions in Zhangjiajie were closed and tourists are urged to take a Covid test before leaving town, local media reported.

“Zhangjiajie has now become the new zero point of the spread of the epidemic in China, ”Zhong Nanshan, China’s leading respiratory disease expert, told reporters.

Zhangjiajie confined its 1.5 million inhabitants on Friday.

Beijing

The new epidemic too arrived in Beijing, and the city has reported several locally transmitted infections.

were cut all air, bus and travel connections from Beijing to areas with positive cases. All tourists were also banned from the capital during the summer travel season, with authorities only allowing entry to “essential travelers” with negative Covid tests.

The virus has also reached Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid-19 first appeared, with seven people testing positive for the virus. According to Chinese state media, the city had not recorded any locally transmitted infection since June 2020.

Following the discovery of some cases among residents returning from Zhangjiajiem, only “essential travelers” will be allowed to enter Beijing. with negative tests.

New cases were also reported in Hainan on Monday, a popular tourist destination, as well as in the province of Henan, devastated by the floods, said the national health authorities.

Worry

Local headlines were dominated by news about the outbreak, with the country’s leading respiratory disease specialist apparently voicing a big concern.

Not easy how many in China are fully vaccinated, although authorities say more than 1.6 billion doses have been administered so far.

A total of 15 provinces and municipalities have already confirmed cases, 12 of which are linked to the Nanjing outbreak. Authorities attributed the spread to the Delta variant and the national tourist season.

Although the number of cases is considerably lower than elsewhere, it is considered biggest epidemic for months in China, a country that succeeded in controlling the virus inside its borders last year.

With information from AFP and BBC News

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