China’s coronavirus cases reach seven-month high

BEIJING/SYDNEY: China’s coronavirus cases hit a seven-month high on Tuesday, after a cluster at a test site drove up numbers as the Delta variant challenges Beijing’s grip on the Covid-19 pandemic.

State media has described the current outbreak - which has sparked local lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions as the most severe since the virus first emerged in the city of Wuhan.

Authorities had brought domestic infections down to virtually zero, allowing economic activity to rebound albeit with tight border restrictions. But now, cases are rising.

On Tuesday, Chinese health authorities reported 143 new coronavirus infections - 108 of them locally transmitted. Dozens of cases came from a Covid-19 testing site in eastern Yangzhou city.

Yangzhou authorities said “a small number of party members and cadres have yet to perform their duties properly”.

NSW reports new daily caseload record

Sydney posted a new record of Covid-19 infections on Tuesday as the city struggles to control an outbreak that is sending other Australian regions into lockdown. New South Wales state announced 356 new cases, a fresh record for a Delta-variant outbreak that began in mid-June and continues to grow in a population with low vaccination rates.

More than five million people in Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, are now in their seventh week of lockdown as the cluster hit 5,805 cases with 32 deaths to date. “Our strategy is to get to as close to zero as we can... but regrettably we have seen those numbers increase in the last few days,” state premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

The coastal town of Byron Bay became the latest put under stayat-home orders - joining regional centres such as Newcastle and Tamworth - with a snap sevenday lockdown announced late on Monday after a person infected with Covid-19 travelled there from Sydney.