Over the last ten days, China has registered 284 new cases of COVID-19, with 130 of them this weekend. This has triggered the Chinese government’s typically aggressive response. The outbreak has been traced to one passenger arriving on a Russian flight to Nanjing, China, where the early cases involved workers at the Nanjing Lukou International Airport. All outgoing flights were cancelled and 1,600 people linked to the airport have been quarantined at home for 14 days. So far, 190 of the 284 cases have been confined to Nanjing, and most of them are the Delta variant.
The remaining cases are suspected to primarily be linked to tourism activity within China. One tourist city of Zhangjiajie has turned up 8 cases, with 4 of them linked to a theater performance on July 22. The State Council has posted: “The tourism safety situation is grim” and people are encouraged to work at home. Only “absolutely necessary” workers should think of travelling to work. Otherwise, flood-stricken Zhengzho had 11 new cases on Saturday, July 31. So far, no new deaths have occurred.
