China tests millions across cities as Covid-19 cases surge

This article is more than 12 months old

Aug 02, 2021 06:00 am

BEIJING Chinese cities rolled out mass testing of millions and imposed fresh travel restrictions as health authorities battled to contain the country's most widespread coronavirus outbreak in months.

Yesterday, China reported 75 cases with 53 local transmissions, with a cluster linked 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 last month.

The authorities have now conducted three rounds of testing on the city's 9.2 million residents and placed hundreds of thousands under lockdown.

Officials are scrambling to track people nationwide who recently travelled from Nanjing or Zhangjiajie, a tourist city in Hunan province that has locked down all 1.5 million residents and shut all tourist attractions.