China Enters New Lockdowns Amid Rise Of Delta Variant

China is returning to lockdowns in some parts of the country amid rising cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

“Flights and trains in and out of Wuhan have been halted amid a rise in COVID-19 cases linked to the highly infectious delta variant of the virus. Authorities have also ordered mass testing in the city of 11 million, where the virus was first detected before it spread around the world,” NPR reported Tuesday.

The lockdowns and testing are measures being taken after cases were identified last month.

State media People’s Daily reported that “China has reported a cluster of COVID-19 infections in the past month, with 328 new locally transmitted confirmed cases registered in July, a number almost equal to the country’s total number in the previous five months.”

“Viral genome sequencing found all the strains to be the highly infectious Delta variant and cities hit by the recent resurgence have promptly taken action to curb the spread of the coronavirus,” the outlet added.

As Fox News reported on Monday, “Initial reports from last week noted that the variant had spread to 15 cities, but that number had risen to 20 cities by Monday. The latest outbreak started July 20 with the variant detected on a plane that arrived at Nanjing Lukou International Airport during a routine cleaning.” 

“After their work was complete, due to cleaning and protective measures not meeting standards, it’s possible some staffers got infected, causing the virus to spread among cleaning staff,” Ding Jie, deputy director general at the Nanjing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said.

Ding added that new cases are “constantly being discovered,” the South China Morning Post reported, per Fox News. 

Travel has been heavily impacted by the shutdowns, as well.

“The capital city has cut all rail, bus and air links with areas where coronavirus cases have been found, and closed its doors to tourists during the peak summer holiday travel season,” The Guardian reported on Monday. “Only ‘essential travellers’ are allowed to enter, if they have a negative nucleic acid test.”

On Sunday, city authorities called on people not to depart Beijing “unless necessary.”

The news out of China comes as Americans are closely watching what steps the U.S. government might take following a rise in cases that is reportedly largely due to the delta variant of the coronavirus. 

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden is keeping the option open for the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) and health officials to make health recommendations. 

“We’re not going back to the shutdowns of March of 2020. We are not going back to the economy shutting down. We’ve made too much progress. Too many people are vaccinated. There’s been too much progress on the economic front,” she noted.

Psaki added, however, that he has said from the beginning that “we’re not going to take options off the table” from what the health officials might recommend.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview Sunday that he doesn’t “think we’re going to see lockdowns.”

“I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country — not enough to crush the outbreak — but I believe enough to allow us to not get into the situation we were in last winter. But things are going to get worse. If you look at the acceleration of the number of cases, the seven-day average has gone up substantially,” he said. 

“We’re looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we’re seeing the cases go up, which is the reason why we keep saying over and over again, the solution to this is get vaccinated and this would not be happening,” Fauci added.

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