Team News Riveting
China is battling the spread of its biggest COVID-19 outbreak caused by the Delta variant, according to numbers announced on Monday.
The travellers from a north-eastern city where infections have grown faster in the country have been forced for a tough quarantine rules. Authorities said 32 new domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms had been reported for November 14, most of them in Dalian, a port city in northeastern Liaoning province.
That brings the tally of local cases between October 17 and November 14 to 1,308, Reuters calculations based on official data showed, compared with the 1,280 from a summer Delta outbreak.
It also marks China’s most widespread Delta outbreak, which has affected 21 provinces, regions and municipalities. It is smaller than many outbreaks in other countries but authorities in China are anxious to block the transmission under the government’s zero-tolerance guidance.
A dozen province-level regions contained their flare-ups within weeks, thanks to quick implementation of a complex set of curbs, including rigorous contact tracing, multiple rounds of testing of people in at risk areas, the closure of entertainment and cultural venues and restrictions on tourism and public transport.
Dalian’s first local symptomatic patients from the latest outbreak was reported on November 4 and the city of 7.5 million people has detected an average of about 24 new local cases a day, more than any other Chinese cities, according to Reuters calculation.
Adjoining cities of Dalian that included Dandong, Anshan and Shenyang had set up centralised facilities to quarantine people arriving from Dalian for 14 days before they can move freely.
