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Delta variant likely to spread to more regions, warns China official as 14 provinces report cases
Reports suggest that Chinese authorities have ordered mass testing in and around the areas where the Delta variant outbreak has been reported.
As China is witnessing its most serious coronavirus surge in months, a senior health official has warned that the highly transmissible Delta variant is likely to spread to more regions. After an original Delta cluster was detected in Nanjing city, the outbreak has now spread to 14 provinces, with Fujian province and the megacity of Chongqing reporting cases on Saturday.
"The main strain circulating at present is the Delta variant... which poses an even greater challenge to virus prevention and control work," said Mi Feng, spokesperson for China's National Health Commission.
The outbreak in Nanjing city has caused concerns because nine cleaners, who tested positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19), were working at the international airport busy handling hundreds of summer tourists. He Qinghua, a senior official with the National Health Commission, told reporters that the Delta variant outbreak may continue to spread to more regions.
“The Nanjing outbreak has spread to other regions within and outside Jiangsu Province. There is a risk that it will continue to spread to more regions," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Global Times.
In the early days of the pandemic, China was largely successful in containing the Covid-19 outbreak within its borders after the virus spread out of Wuhan. But the fast-spreading Delta variant, first detected in India, has jeopardised the virus response. For the first time in nearly 6 months, Beijing has reported Covid-19 cases in the last few days.
Reports suggest that authorities have ordered mass testing in and around the areas where the Delta variaoutbreak has been reported. Zhangjiajie, a popular tourist destination in the northwest of China's Hunan province, has ordered over 11,000 tourists to take three nucleic acid tests before leaving the city, reported state-run news agency Xinhua.
China is reported to have administered 1.63 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines, the highest in the world. But the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines, especially against the Delta variant, has been a matter of concern. Several countries, including Indonesia, administering China-made vaccines have reported more breakthrough cases than those administering other vaccines.
(With inputs from agencies)
