China’s Wuhan to test all 12m residents after just three Delta cases found
China’s Wuhan is set to test all 12m residents after just three Delta variant cases were spotted in the city, but fears of it spreading grow.
The country’s levels of the Delta variant are still relatively low in comparison to the UK, with total cases standing at just 414 for the entire country.
The Delta variant was first detected in Nanjing in late July and caused the city of some 9.3m people to enter a strict lockdown.
Wuhan, where Covid-19 first emerged, had not reported any cases since mid-May last year following China’s tough stance on infections.
However, authorities reported three confirmed cases of the Delta strain on Monday – the second large city to have been in contact with the variant in the past two weeks.
“To ensure that everyone in the city is safe, city-wide nucleic acid testing will be quickly launched for all people to fully screen out positive results and asymptomatic infections,” Wuhan official Li Qiang told reporters.
Parts of an industrial and technology area have been cordoned off, a technique that has been rarely seen since its first lockdown last year.
Chinese officials added that the variant most likely entered the city on a flight from Russia.