BEIJING: China locked down a county that saw the most Covid-19 cases in the country’s latest delta outbreak, as an initial flare-up in the country’s northwest accelerates into a nationwide surge.
Aijin, a county in China’s Inner Mongolia region, told its 35,700 residents to stay home from Monday and warned of civil and criminal liability if anyone disobeyed the order, state broadcaster CCTV quoted a local government statement as saying. Giving told. The small county bordering Mongolia is the hotspot of the current outbreak, home to nearly a third of the more than 150 infections detected in the past week in the mainland.
The lockdown comes a day after National Health Commission officials warned that the outbreak would get worse after spreading to 11 provinces in about a week. China 38. informed of covid Infections on Monday, half of which were found in Inner Mongolia.
The current outbreak in China is caused by a delta variant from overseas, Wu Liangyou, an official with the National Health Commission, said at a briefing in Beijing.
The capital Beijing – which has seen a dozen new cases in the northwest – has banned entry for people arriving from anywhere in the country that has reported locally transmitted Covid cases. Those who have to visit Beijing from these areas will have to provide a negative Covid test done two days ago, and undergo two weeks of unspecified health monitoring.
Meanwhile, provinces with a handful of cases, including Beijing; Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Ningxia to the northwest; And in the southwest, Guizhou is banned from conducting cross-country travel tours. All train services around China related to tourism have also been halted, as the current outbreak has seen the virus spread rapidly among travel groups.
Mounting restrictions also underscore the challenge China faces in controlling the highly contagious delta variant. The country is the only country in the world still trying to eliminate local transmission of the virus at a time when other so-called Covid-Zero stalwarts – from Singapore to Australia – are set to treat it as endemic.
China has managed to end several flare-ups since Delta first breached its tight border controls in May. One in July and August eventually spread to half of China, forcing officials to cut transportation from hotspots and test the local population several times to bring infections back down to zero – only to see new clusters emerge. For.
The spread of the delta variant in Asia is slowing efforts by governments to reopen their economies. Singapore announced on Saturday that only employees who have been fully vaccinated, or who have recovered from Covid-19 in the past 270 days, can return to the workplace from January 1. The government last week extended other virus restrictions for another month as cases continue to rise. Even after complete vaccination of more than 84% of the population.
Aijin, a county in China’s Inner Mongolia region, told its 35,700 residents to stay home from Monday and warned of civil and criminal liability if anyone disobeyed the order, state broadcaster CCTV quoted a local government statement as saying. Giving told. The small county bordering Mongolia is the hotspot of the current outbreak, home to nearly a third of the more than 150 infections detected in the past week in the mainland.
The lockdown comes a day after National Health Commission officials warned that the outbreak would get worse after spreading to 11 provinces in about a week. China 38. informed of covid Infections on Monday, half of which were found in Inner Mongolia.
The current outbreak in China is caused by a delta variant from overseas, Wu Liangyou, an official with the National Health Commission, said at a briefing in Beijing.
The capital Beijing – which has seen a dozen new cases in the northwest – has banned entry for people arriving from anywhere in the country that has reported locally transmitted Covid cases. Those who have to visit Beijing from these areas will have to provide a negative Covid test done two days ago, and undergo two weeks of unspecified health monitoring.
Meanwhile, provinces with a handful of cases, including Beijing; Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Ningxia to the northwest; And in the southwest, Guizhou is banned from conducting cross-country travel tours. All train services around China related to tourism have also been halted, as the current outbreak has seen the virus spread rapidly among travel groups.
Mounting restrictions also underscore the challenge China faces in controlling the highly contagious delta variant. The country is the only country in the world still trying to eliminate local transmission of the virus at a time when other so-called Covid-Zero stalwarts – from Singapore to Australia – are set to treat it as endemic.
China has managed to end several flare-ups since Delta first breached its tight border controls in May. One in July and August eventually spread to half of China, forcing officials to cut transportation from hotspots and test the local population several times to bring infections back down to zero – only to see new clusters emerge. For.
The spread of the delta variant in Asia is slowing efforts by governments to reopen their economies. Singapore announced on Saturday that only employees who have been fully vaccinated, or who have recovered from Covid-19 in the past 270 days, can return to the workplace from January 1. The government last week extended other virus restrictions for another month as cases continue to rise. Even after complete vaccination of more than 84% of the population.
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