China locks down virus-hit districts of southern city

CHINESE officials reimposed lockdown restrictions on parts of the southern industrial megacity of Guangzhou yesterday in a bid to curb a fresh spread of Covid-19.

The city’s Nansha, Huadu and Conghua districts ordered all residents and any individuals who had travelled through their areas to be tested for the virus.

In Nansha, officials told restaurants to stop letting customers eat inside and called on gyms, swimming pools and other public venues to shut.

Beijing is keen to preserve its lead over the US and other Western economies with its successful containment of the pathogen. It is currently vaccinating nearly 14 million people per day, more than any other nation.

Officials are also mulling mandatory vaccination programmes among stateowned enterprise employees and Communist party members.

After a slow start China’s domestic vaccinations now account for roughly a third of the 1.9billion shots distributed globally. Roughly 40 per cent of the population has received a first dose, with the government hoping to inoculate 80 per cent by the end of the year.

The restrictions in Guangzhou followed 24 new coronavirus cases being reported on the Chinese mainland yesterday, 11 of which were locally transmitted cases in Guangdong, the wider province in which Guangzhou is located. Guangzhou is home to around 15million people – nearly twice the population of New York City – while Guangdong has around 115million people.

Guangzhou has seen a growing number of Covid cases since May 21, linked to a pensioner who was infected with the highly transmissible Indian strain of Covid, now officially renamed the Delta variant by the World Health Organisation.

Local officials have been rolling out mass test programmes to contain the virus’s spread, with nearly eight million of Guangzhou’s residents tested as of last Wednesday. As of Friday, China had a total of 91,218 confirmed Covid cases, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,636.

China has so far given out 681million vaccine doses in its bid to get 40 per cent of its population vaccinated against Covid by the end of June.