China orders mass testing in Wuhan as COVID-19 outbreak spreads
Chinese authorities announced mass coronavirus testing in Wuhan on Tuesday as an unusually wide series of COVID-19 outbreaks reached the city where coronavirus was first detected in late 2019. Wuhan, the provincial capital of 11 million people in central China, is the latest city to undergo city-wide testing. Three cases were confirmed there on Monday, its first non-imported cases in more than a year.
China has managed to control COVID-19 with quick measures
China has largely curbed the deadly COVID-19 infection at home after the initial outbreak that devastated the city of Wuhan and over time spread to the rest of China and globally. Since then, authorities have tamped down and controlled the disease whenever it pops up with quick lockdowns and mass testing to isolate infected people.
Most cases have been identified as the delta variant
The current outbreaks, while still in hundreds of cases in total, have spread more widely than previous ones, reaching multiple provinces and cities including the capital, Beijing. Many cases have been identified as highly contagious delta variant that is driving a resurgence in many countries.
Ninety new cases were confirmed on Monday
The National Health Commission said that 90 new cases had been confirmed on Monday, 61 locally spread ones and 29 among people who had recently arrived from abroad. Most of the local cases are still in Jiangsu province, where an outbreak started at the airport in Nanjing, the provincial capital, and has spread to the city of Yangzhou, 105 kilometers (65 miles) away.
Beijing has reported total five cases in recent days
Authorities reported 45 new cases, five in Nanjing and 40 in Yangzhou, which was conducting a second round of mass testing. Five other provinces and the cities of Beijing and Shanghai reported new local cases in single digits. In Shanghai, a driver working at one of its two main airports tested positive. Beijing has reported a total of five cases in recent days.
Over 1.6 billion Chinese vaccines have been administered in China
Government-affiliated scientists have said that Chinese vaccines are less effective against the new strains of the coronavirus but still offer some protection. Only Chinese vaccines are currently being given in China, where authorities say more than 1.6 billion doses have been administered.
