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| Millions in China are undergoing mass testing as the country battles surging virus cases. (Photo by= AFP/STR) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] BEIJING: While health authorities battled Sunday (Aug 1) to contain the country's most widespread coronavirus outbreak in months, Chinese cities conducted mass testing of millions of people and imposed fresh travel restrictions, AFP reported.
China on Sunday reported 75 new coronavirus cases with 53 local transmissions, with a cluster connected to an eastern airport now reported to have spread to over 20 cities and more than a dozen provinces. The outbreak is geographically the largest to hit China in several months after the country's successes in largely snuffing out the pandemic within its borders last year. That record has been thrown into jeopardy after the fast-spreading Delta variant broke out at Nanjing airport in eastern Jiangsu province in July.
Authorities have now conducted three rounds of testing on the city's 9.2 million residents and placed hundreds of thousands under lockdown, in an effort to curb an outbreak Beijing has blamed on the highly contagious Delta variant and the peak tourist season. Fresh cases were reported Sunday in Hainan island - another popular tourist destination - as well as Ningxia and Shandong provinces, authorities said. The country is also battling a separate rise in cases in the flood-ravaged city of Zhengzhou in Henan province after two cleaners at a hospital treating coronavirus patients coming from abroad tested positive.
