China fights virus surge as Japan extends emergency

China says Delta variant behind COVID-19 surge; Japan extends emergency and expands the measure to four more regions ater new cases topped 10,000 for the first time

China raced on Saturday to contain its worst coronavirus outbreak in months, as health officials blamed the highly infectious Delta variant for a surge in infections spanning 14 provinces.

China reported 328 symptomatic infections in July - almost equal to the total number of local cases from February to June.

“The main strain circulating at present is the Delta variant... which poses an even greater challenge to virus prevention and control work,” Mi Feng, spokesman for the National Health Commission (NHC), said at a press briefing.

The outbreak is geographically the largest to hit China in several months, challenging the country’s early success in snuffing out the pandemic within its borders ater Covid-19 seeped out of Wuhan.

But that record has been thrown into jeopardy ater the fast-spreading Delta variant broke out at Nanjing airport in eastern Jiangsu province earlier this month.

More than 260 infections nationwide have been linked to the cluster in Nanjing, where nine cabin cleaners at an international airport tested positive on July 20.

Hundreds of thousands have already been locked down in Jiangsu province, while Nanjing has tested all 9.2 million residents twice.

The contagiousness of the Delta variant combined with the peak tourist season and high passenger circulation at the airport has led to the rapid spread of this outbreak, NHC official He Qinghua told reporters at the briefing.

Fresh cases reported on Saturday in two more regions - Fujian province and the sprawling megacity of Chongqing - included one patient who visited the tourist city of Xi’an, Shaanxi province, and an international cargo crew member who recently travelled from abroad, authorities said.

Officials in one Chongqing district ordered emergency mass testing late on Friday for people who had visited venues linked to confirmed cases.

Ater one asymptomatic case was discovered in Zhengzhou - the epicentre of recent deadly floods in central Henan province - city officials on Saturday ordered mass testing of all 10 million residents. The head of the city health commission was also sacked.

The tourist city of Zhangjiajie in Hunan province, where the landscape inspired the “Avatar” blockbuster, locked down all 1.5 million residents and shut all tourist atractions on Friday, according to an official notice. Health officials said the virus was likely brought there via the Nanjing cluster, according to preliminary investigations.

Officials are now scrambling to track people nationwide who recently travelled from Nanjing or Zhangjiajie, and have urged tourists not to travel to areas where cases have been found.

Ater reports that some people sickened in the latest cluster were vaccinated, health officials said this was “normal” and stressed the importance of vaccination alongside strict measures.

“The Covid vaccine’s protection against the Delta variant may have somewhat declined, but the current vaccine still has a good preventative and protective effect against the Delta variant,” said Feng Zijian, virologist at the Chinese centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 1.6 billion vaccine doses have so far been administered nationwide as of Friday, the NHC said. It does not provide figures on how many people have been fully vaccinated.

Health officials have said they are aiming for 80 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated by year-end.

And Japan extended a virus state of emergency in Tokyo and expanded the measure to four more regions ater new cases topped 10,000 for the first time on Thursday.

Japan’s case figures remain small compared to many places, with 3,300 new infections reported in Tokyo on Friday, but experts say the medical system is already at risk of being overwhelmed with only around a quarter of the population fully vaccinated. The record cases come as Tokyo hosts the Olympics, where organisers on Friday reported 27 new cases related to the event - the highest daily figure yet.

Governments of other wealthy countries have amplified efforts to get more of their populations to accept jabs.

Bolstering their case, new research shows that relaxing anti-virus measures before an entire population is vaccinated greatly enhances the risk of more resistant variants evolving.