China fights the delta epidemic, millions of people are blocked by the virus

• China is trying to contain the largest coronavirus outbreak in months through large-scale testing and travel restrictions.
• The rapidly spreading Delta variant has covered more than 20 cities and more than 10 provinces.
• On Sunday, officials called on residents to “not leave Beijing unless necessary.”

On Monday, China tried to contain the largest coronavirus outbreak in months through large-scale testing and travel restrictions. Millions of people were confined at home.

China reported 55 new locally transmitted coronavirus cases on Monday, as the rapidly spreading Delta variant has spread to more than 20 cities and more than a dozen provinces.

Local governments in major cities, including Beijing, have now tested millions of residents, locked down residential areas and quarantined close contacts.

According to an official statement, the city of Zhuzhou in central Hunan Province ordered more than 1.2 million residents to lock down their homes for the next three days to carry out city-wide testing and vaccination activities.

“The situation is still severe and complicated,” the Zhuzhou city government said.

Beijing has previously boasted that after the first coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan at the end of 2019, it has successfully reduced domestic cases to almost zero, allowing the economy to rebound.

Read here | Public health experts say that the leaked CDC documents are “largely reassuring” for vaccinated people.

However, the latest outbreak is related to a cluster in Nanjing. On July 20, nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive. More than 360 domestic cases have been reported in the past two weeks, threatening this success.

In Zhangjiajie, a tourist attraction near Zhuzhou, an epidemic broke out among theater audiences last month, and they brought the virus back to their homes across the country.

Zhangjiajie sealed off all 1.5 million residents on Friday.

Officials are urgently looking for people who have recently been from Nanjing or Zhangjiajie, and urge tourists not to travel to areas where cases have been found.

At the same time, Beijing prohibits tourists from entering the capital during the summer tourist season.

After a few cases were found among residents returning from Zhangjiajie, only “essential travelers” who tested negative for nucleic acid were allowed to enter.

Read also | The director of the National Institutes of Health said that the rules for vaccinated people to wear masks are “mainly to protect people who have not been vaccinated.”

On Sunday, senior city officials called on residents to “not leave Beijing unless necessary.”

Last week, the capital’s Changping District blocked 41,000 people in nine residential communities.

The national health department said that on Monday, new cases were reported in Hainan, a popular tourist destination and the flood-stricken Henan province.