© Getty ImagesEight cases have emerged in Wuhan, the original epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic.
Chinese officials have ordered
all 11 million residents of Wuhan to be tested for Covid-19, after new cases emerged in the city for the first time in more than a year.
On Tuesday the national health commission reported
eight cases in Wuhan, the city where Covid-19 was first detected in late 2019, before spreading around the world.
The cases - three of which were symptomatic and five asymptomatic - were among 84 new cases reported across China in the 24 hours to Monday evening. On Tuesday, Wuhan health official Li Tao said they were "swiftly launching comprehensive nucleic acid testing" of all 11 million residents.
They are believed linked to a growing outbreak of the Delta variant that has reached more than 20 cities, across more than a dozen provinces in recent weeks, including the capital Beijing and flood-hit Zhengzhou Millions of people have been confined to their homes as the country tries to contain its largest coronavirus outbreak in months with mass testing and travel curbs.
Wuhan's cases, which include seven reported on Monday detected among the city's migrant workers, are the first local transmissions in the city since it contained the world's first major Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.
In January last year the city was put under a strict lockdown which went for 76 days. The restrictions on Wuhan and its population alarmed the world, but when the virus spread they were
soon replicated by numerous countries as a key outbreak response measure.
Comment: This latest "outbreak" has prompted multiple lockdowns in China, with
millions confined to their homes.
Local governments in major cities including Beijing have now tested millions of residents, while cordoning off residential compounds and placing close contacts under quarantine.
The central city of Zhuzhou in Hunan province ordered over 1.2 million residents today to stay home under strict lockdown for the next three days as it rolls out a citywide testing and vaccination campaign, according to an official statement. "The situation is still grim and complicated," the Zhuzhou government said.
...
Zhangjiajie locked down all 1.5 million residents on Friday.
Officials are urgently seeking people who have recently travelled from Nanjing or Zhangjiajie, and have urged tourists not to travel to areas where cases have been found.
Meanwhile, Beijing has blocked tourists from entering the capital during the peak summer holiday travel season.
Only "essential travellers" with negative nucleic acid tests will be allowed to enter after the discovery of a handful of cases among residents who had returned from Zhangjiajie.
Top city officials have called for residents "not to leave Beijing unless necessary".
The capital's Changping district locked down 41,000 people in nine housing communities last week.
1) They genuinely want to limit its spread to their citizens for some beneficial reason(s).
or
2) It provides an opportunity to control their citizens for some reason(s).