Enlarge image
Hamster purchases in a supermarket in Wuhan: people fear a new lockdown
Photo:
Getty Images
The corona virus is back in Wuhan: In the Chinese city, which is considered to be the starting point of the pandemic, the authorities have announced mass tests for all eleven million inhabitants.
According to the authorities, seven infections in migrant workers had previously been detected in Wuhan.
In other Chinese cities, too, the health authorities are trying to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant with lockdowns and travel restrictions.
The world's first source of infection from the then novel corona virus was identified in Wuhan at the end of 2019.
The metropolis in the Hubei province was then completely cordoned off, the last cases of infection were reported there a good year ago.
400 new cases since July
With strict measures also in other cities, China had largely brought the spread of the corona virus under control by summer 2020.
But now the delta variant is also spreading in the People's Republic: since mid-July, more than 400 new cases have been discovered across the country.
Health officials reported 61 new infections across the country on Tuesday.
In Wuhan, many people stormed the shops on Monday evening to stock up on groceries before a possible new lockdown.
Before the strict lockdown last year, when the city was cut off from the outside world for 76 days, there had also been hamster purchases.
Officials on Tuesday asked people in online networks not to panic.
The stores had promised to keep prices stable and to ensure supplies, it said.
In the fight against the largest corona outbreak in months, several Chinese cities have already been locked down.
Entire residential complexes have been cordoned off, travel restrictions imposed and millions of people tested for the virus.
No information was available on whether they were tested with PCR or antigen tests.
Several cities cordoned off
According to the authorities, the new cases of infection in the People's Republic can be traced back to a source of infection in the eastern Chinese metropolis of Nanjing.
There, nine cleaning staff at the airport tested positive for the corona virus in mid-July.
More than 20 cities in around a dozen provinces are now affected by the sources of infection, including the capital Beijing.
The tourist town of Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province, where several infected people from Nanjing had attended a theater festival, was cordoned off on Tuesday.
Nobody is allowed to leave the city, neither residents nor tourists, said a short message in the local Communist Party's newspaper, "Zhangjiajie Daily".
In the city of Yangzhou near Nanjing, all residents have to stay at home for the time being.
After 40 cases of infection were discovered within one day in mass tests, the city administration imposed a curfew on more than 1.3 million people on Tuesday.
For the time being, only one resident per household is allowed to leave the house once a day to go shopping.
kry / AFP
