Beijing: The outbreak of the delta variant of the coronavirus in China seems to be increasing, due to which the leaders have to re-adopt the strategy of closing the cities. Restrictions are being reimposed in the US, Australia, and elsewhere in the world as cases of the highly contagious delta form of the coronavirus increase. President Xi Jinping’s government is battling the most severe outbreak of the virus ever since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan last year.
The ruling Communist Party is re-adopting the strategy of ‘bandh’ in China. The movement has been suspended in the city with a population of 1.5 million, flights have been canceled and large-scale investigations have been ordered in some areas. The policy of isolating every infected person and trying to prevent the arrival of new cases of infection from abroad helped China a lot in controlling the epidemic last year, which made it largely infection-free. Shanghai doctor Zhang Wenhong, who came into the limelight during the outbreak of infection in Wuhan, said in a social media post that cases of infection are spreading again and the virus is not getting rid of, so China’s strategy may change. “The world has to learn to live with this virus,” he said. These new cases of infection have also been reported in many people who have taken doses of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine, raising concerns that handling it could disrupt manufacturing and supply chains in China.
Xi Chen, a health economist at the Yale School of Public Health, said China needed to stop the spread of infection within communities by speeding up vaccinations and treating infected people more quickly. “In China, even if you put a lockdown in all areas, people may die, but more may die due to starvation or job loss,” he said. Health officials said the highest number of infections this year were among airport workers who cleaned a Russian plane in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on July 10.
Some travelers traveled through Nanjing to Zhangjiajie, a popular tourist destination southwest of Shanghai in Hunan province. Due to this, a large number of infections spread in the city. The disease spread to Beijing and other cities in more than 10 provinces. On Tuesday, Zhangjiajie’s government announced that no one would be allowed to leave the city. Flights to Nanjing and Yangzhou have been suspended. Trains bound for Beijing from those cities have been canceled.
