Covid surges in China, Mauritius
BEIJING: New local Covid-19 infections more than doubled in China’s south-eastern province of Fujian, health authorities said yesterday, prompting officials to quickly roll out measures including travel restrictions to halt the spread of the virus.
The National Health Commission said 59 new locally transmitted cases were reported for September 13, up from 22 infections a day earlier. All of them were in Fujian, a province bordered by Zhejiang to the north and Guangdong to the south.
In just four days, a total of 102 community infections were reported in three Fujian cities, including Xiamen, a tourist and transport hub with a population of 5 million.
The infections come ahead of the week-long National Day holiday starting on October 1, a major tourist season. The last domestic outbreak in late July to August disrupted travel, hitting the tourism, hospitality and transportation sectors.
China’s air passenger traffic plunged 51.5% in August from a year earlier, data released yesterday showed, highlighting the vulnerability of Chinese airlines to repeated outbreaks even though Covid-19 is largely under control in the country.
Fujian’s outbreak began in Putian, a city of 3.2 million, with the first case reported on September 10. Preliminary tests on samples from some Putian cases showed patients had contracted the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The outbreak has since spread south to Xiamen, which reported 32 new cases of community transmission for September 13 compared with just one infection a day earlier.
Both Putian and Xiamen began city-wide testing for the coronavirus yesterday. The cities, however, are yet to announce tough city-wide lockdowns as seen in early 2020 in China.
Three new cases of community transmission were also reported in nearby Quanzhou city, versus six infections a day earlier. Variflight data showed 70% of Quanzhou’s flights were cancelled.
“One wave after another,” said a bank manager in Xiamen. “It feels like the new normal now.”
In Mauritius, hospitals are overwhelmed, ventilators are hard to find, and there’s no longer enough space at the main cemetery for Covid victims.
Barely three weeks before it flings its doors wide open to international travellers at the start of the peak tourist season, the paradise island nation is struggling with an alarming explosion in coronavirus infections and deaths.
In just two months, cases have jumped over five-fold to more than 12 600 as of Friday.
Since the pandemic started, Mauritius has recorded 1 005 cases of Covid19 per 100 000 inhabitants, far higher than the continent’s average of 598.
The crisis is now so acute that 74-year-old former prime minister Navin Ramgoolam has flown to India for Covid treatment, and the opposition leader has discussed his struggle to find a bed for an ailing friend.
In July, the idyllic Indian Ocean holiday destination, renowned for its white sandy beaches and turquoise waters, partly reopened to vaccinated international visitors.
But they had to remain in “resort bubbles” for 14 days before being allowed to venture further afield, provided they had a negative PCR test.
The government reduced that timeframe to seven days this month ahead of a full reopening to tourists planned for October 1.
The government has not given any explanation for the surge, but local media reports speak of people ignoring social distancing guidelines and throwing caution to the winds after getting inoculated.
The authorities had ordered people in some sectors to have Covid jabs or risk hefty fines and jail terms of up to five years.
As of Saturday, 61 percent of the population was fully vaccinated, but the pandemic picture remains bleak.
Bernard, a worker at the leafy Bigara cemetery on the main island, said the area reserved for coronavirus victims was already full.
The dead are now being laid to rest at another graveyard in the north of the island, but locals are furious, saying Covid-19 victims are being buried too close to their homes.