China is facing the worst coronavirus outbreak in months driven by the Delta variant of COVID
China is facing the worst coronavirus outbreak in months driven by the Delta variant of COVID, as on Saturday the nation's health authorities said that it has spread to two more parts of the country.
A total of 55 new cases of COVID was reported in areas including Fujian province and Chongqing municipality. This comes as the outbreak of the Delta COVID variant, which was first detected in India last year, has already been reported in four provinces, including the national capital, Beijing.
The outbreak was first reported after nine cleaners at an international airport in Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province tested COVID positive on July 20. More than 200 infections in China have been linked to the cluster. The new surge of COVID cases has spread to five other provinces and Beijing municipality, according to The Global Times.
After airport staff tested positive, Nanjing suspended all its flights, and it has ordered all tourists attractions, cultural venues not to open on Saturday.
While 9.2 million residents living in the city of Ninjaing have been tested for the infection twice, in Jiangsu province, hundreds of thousands of people have been put under lockdown.
Meanwhile in Hunan province's Zhangjiajie has locked down all its residents, 1.2 million people, and it shut down all tourist attractions on Friday, an official notice stated, AFP reported.
Zhangjiajie is famous for its striking rock formations. Part of the blockbuster movie 'Avatar' was filmed there.
Two locally transmitted cases were found in Changping district, where 41,000 people in nine housing communities went under lockdown on Thursday.
According to official data, China has so far vaccinated about 40 percent of its population against COVID-19.
China's worst outbreak in months comes after the Xi Jinping-led nation had boasted of its success in snuffing out the pandemic after imposing lockdown in early 2020 when the virus first emerged in Wuhan in December 2019.
The Delta variant-driven outbreak in China has thrown the nation's record in jeopardy.
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