China is currently experiencing the strongest coronavirus outbreak in months due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. In a total of 14 provinces, the authorities recorded an increase in the number of infections on Saturday. The Delta variant is currently in circulation, “which makes the challenges of prevention and control even greater,” said Mi Feng, spokesman for the National Health Commission.
In July, authorities registered 328 symptomatic infections – almost as many as in the entire February-June period. On Saturday, the authorities reported new cases in Fujian Province and the city of Chongqing with a population of 31 million, among others. State media showed pictures of residents queuing for a corona test on Saturday.
There are now more than 260 infections nationwide due to an outbreak in the east Chinese city of Nanjing. There, on July 20, nine cleaners at the international airport tested positive. According to the authorities, all cases are due to the more contagious Delta variant of the virus. In the city, the closure of all tourist attractions and cultural sites was ordered for Saturday.
Joint venture with Biontech
The high infectivity of the Delta variant in combination with the vacation time and a high number of passengers at the airport have led to the rapid spread, said He Qinghua of the National Health Commission on Saturday.
As early as the end of August, China plans to produce a vaccine developed jointly with the German pharmaceutical laboratory Biontech. Biontech is currently mainly supplying the western world with an mRNA vaccine developed with the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Together with the Chinese pharmaceutical giant Fosun, Biontech has further developed its Comirnaty vaccine. According to the Japanese business newspaper “Nikkei”, the joint venture plans to produce up to 200 million cans per month. In addition, China has already imported millions of Pfizer / Biontech vaccine doses since the beginning of the year.
The new mRNA vaccine is to be used in advance as a third booster vaccination. The Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines developed by China and also used in poorer countries around the world have an effectiveness of around 50 to 80 percent. This means that the Chinese vaccines are significantly less effective than the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna. This has apparently also raised concerns in China that the more infectious variants of the virus such as Delta cannot be effectively contained with their own vaccines.
Capital Beijing also affected
In the Jiangzu province with its capital Nanjing, hundreds of thousands of people are affected by lockdowns. All 9.2 million residents of the provincial capital have been tested twice, according to the authorities. In the Beijing district of Changping, where two cases have been reported so far, around 41,000 people have to stay in their homes. In the Chinese capital, it is the first officially recorded corona cases in six months.
The tourist town of Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province, where a handful of contagions can be traced back to a theater performance, imposed a curfew on all 1.5 million residents on Friday and closed all tourist attractions, according to an official statement. The city of Zhangjiajie is famous for its rock formations, in front of which parts of the hit film “Avatar” were filmed.
The government in Beijing is pursuing a zero Covid strategy: If small clusters appear in a city or province, the affected areas are cordoned off and all residents are tested for the virus. According to the Health Commission, more than 1.6 billion vaccine doses had been distributed in China by Friday. The commission did not say how many people have now been completely vaccinated. (AFP / kes)