[Most epidemiologists agree that a zero-tolerance approach is not tenable in the long run, but in the absence of herd immunity, Osterrieder said, Chinese officials do not have many short-term alternatives. More than half the population had been fully vaccinated as of July, still short of the 80 to 85 percent target that experts say is needed to protect the population.]
By Rebecca Tan and Lyric Li
Driven by the contagious delta
variant, the outbreak will be a closely watched test of China’s vaccines as
well as its draconian containment strategy, which until
this point has been largely effective in keeping infections low, experts say.
The number of new reported cases is
still in the hundreds, but epidemiologists have expressed concern that local
clusters have emerged in almost 30 cities, including Beijing, Wuhan and
the flood-hit city of Zhengzhou.
Officials have responded swiftly
with new restrictions, increased surveillance and, in some places, cash
incentives to report on people suspected of carrying the virus. Wuhan has
started testing all 11 million of its residents after seven new cases;
Zhengzhou, still reeling from a heavy downpour that killed at least 300, has also begun mass testing.
[China sets back search for
covid origins with rejection of WHO investigation proposal]
On Tuesday, the surveillance app
used by the government to track people’s travel history and exposure
status briefly crashed because of overwhelming
traffic.
“With the transmissibility of the
delta variant, the method of tracing and containing is becoming increasingly
difficult,” said Nikolaus Osterrieder, dean of the Jockey Club College of
Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences in Hong Kong. “Like everyone, China is
now in a race.”
There’s much at stake for the
country’s leaders, not just in terms of public health but also political image,
said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on
Foreign Relations. If infections skyrocket, “it is going to not only lead
people to question the effectiveness of the existing pandemic-control approach
but also significantly undermine the official narrative that touts the
superiority of China’s political system in handling the pandemic,” he said
Huang added that the delta variant
outbreak also makes it increasingly unlikely that China will significantly
loosen borders in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in February.
Most epidemiologists agree that a
zero-tolerance approach is not tenable in the long run, but in the absence of
herd immunity, Osterrieder said, Chinese officials do not have many short-term
alternatives. More than half the population had been fully vaccinated as of
July, still short of the 80 to 85 percent target that experts say is needed to
protect the population.
As of this week, all provinces in
China have issued travel warnings or banned nonessential trips to areas
considered high-risk. Some villages have blocked road access to keep out
unwanted visitors, and universities have ordered students and staff not to
leave campus. Wuhan University told students to suspend or cancel plans for summer internships
unless they were able to move them online.
In Beijing, where more than
80 percent of residents have been vaccinated, most districts have gone
more than a year without new cases, government data shows. But in the past week,
five new infections have been reported, prompting officials to bar residents
from more than a hundred high- or medium-risk areas from entering the city.
The capital needs to be “guarded at
all costs,” Beijing Communist Party Secretary Cai Qi said in a meeting Sunday where officials decided on the
new restrictions. “From top to bottom, the city needs to be on alert,” he
added.
The delta variant outbreak began in
the eastern city of Nanjing, where officials say workers at Lukou International
Airport were probably exposed to the virus by infected travelers from Russia.
In 10 days, the virus made its way to at least two dozen other cities, forming
new hot spots.
[WHO clarifies details of early
covid patients in Wuhan after errors in virus report]
The tourist city of Zhangjiajie,
known for its quartz-sandstone pillars and glass skywalk bridge, was placed in
lockdown after recent travelers tested positive. Officials say they are racing
to track down more than 2,000 people who attended a packed theater performance
in late July before scattering across the country.
“I’m not too worried about the
Nanjing outbreak, because it is a big city and the containment has been done
very well,” Zhong Nanshan, a government-appointed epidemiologist, said
Saturday. “But whether the smaller city [of Zhangjiajie] could become a
spreader? This we still don’t know.”
Officials are also paying attention
to the city of Yangzhou, near Nanjing in Jiangsu province, which has reported
94 new cases since the weekend. Forty-three of the cases have been traced to
mah-jongg and chess rooms, local news reported, which have since been shut down.
Yangzhou officials have offered a
$770 cash reward to people who file reports of residents who have recently been
to specific mah-jongg rooms or who have come to Yangzhou from high-risk areas.
If the individual tests positive, the reward will be doubled, reported a
Shanghai-based newspaper.
Read more
China’s
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From
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China
sets back search for covid origins with rejection of WHO investigation proposal