New Covid cases found in 18 provinces, 27 cities in China

On July 31, China reported 75 new cases of Covid-19, including at least 53 locally transmitted infections associated to the fast-spreading Nanjing-linked pandemic, which was detected in 18 provinces and 27 cities.

Since the third week of July, more than 300 cases have been recorded, most of which are claimed to be of the Delta type; more than 200 local illnesses have been reported from Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, according to official media on Sunday.

Beijing on Sunday restricted the entry of people from regions where cases have been found after two more infections were reported in the city in the past 24 hours.

Flights and passenger trains from the impacted districts to Beijing have been halted, according Chinese authorities. On Saturday, the province of Jiangsu reported 30 new locally transmitted cases, up from 19 the day before.

There were also 12 new cases recorded in central China’s Henan province, with 11 new cases confirmed in the flood-stricken city of Zhengzhou as of Saturday.

According to a statement from China’s national health authority, the city also reported 16 asymptomatic cases, which are not included in official numbers (NHC).

“On Sunday, the number of medium- and high-risk regions throughout the country climbed to 95, with 91 medium-risk regions and four high-risk regions, including Yunnan’s Dehong prefecture, Jiangsu’s Nanjing, and Henan’s Zhengzhou,” according to the report.

The earliest cases of the Nanjing epidemic were connected to employees at the Nanjing Lukou International Airport who cleaned an airplane after it arrived from Russia carrying an infected passenger, according to officials.

Zhangjiajie, a renowned tourist site in central China’s Hunan province. Cases in at least seven cities in five provinces including Sichuan and Liaoning and in Beijing have been linked to the tourist destination with tourists returning to their hometowns from the city at the end of their holidays.

Estimates say thousands of tourists had visited Zhangjiajie in July and have subsequently returned home across the country. Zhong Nanshan, China’s top respiratory specialist, voiced alarm over the current outbreak in Zhangjiajie, saying that while Nanjing as a major city is doing a good job in epidemic prevention and management, it’s unknown whether the epidemic in Zhangjiajie would spread further.

By Saturday, there were 93,005 confirmed Covid-19 cases on the mainland, with 1,022 patients still undergoing treatment, 25 of whom were in critical condition. Following their recovery on the mainland, a total of 87,347 patients were discharged from hospitals, with 4,636 of them dying as a result of the virus.

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