Delta variant dominant as Beijing tops China’s Covid-19 tally
- Chinese capital accounted for 20 of the 54 cases reported nationwide on Saturday, with Hangzhou at No 2
- Beijing’s caseload has risen to 105 since Covid-19 returned to the city on January 15, and cases in the Olympic bubble are also growing
China’s capital and Games co-host city topped the local cases tally for Saturday, accounting for 20 of the 54 new infections reported nationwide.
Another 19 were detected in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, the National Health Commission said.
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The latest infections take Beijing’s caseload to 105 since Covid-19 returned to the city on January 15, as outbreaks elsewhere in the country abate following weeks of extreme measures to cut the transmission chain. Six of the Beijing cases involved the Omicron variant, and the rest were Delta.
Of these, 16 are athletes and team officials, and the rest are “other stakeholders”, which usually refers to the media and Games partners. The case total in the Olympic bubble has grown to 139 since January 23, with the opening ceremony to take place on Friday.
The event is being held under strict coronavirus restrictions, with all participants – from athletes to journalists – kept completely separate from the general population. Local cases are also counted separately from the Olympic tallies.
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Deputy transport minister Wang Yang on Sunday called on authorities to step up security and Covid-19 prevention measures, as he inspected traffic arrangements for the Games.
Infections are expected to rise in the city as some of the cases involving crowded events such as year-end and wedding banquets, authorities said. The outbreak has already spilled over into the nearby provinces of Guizhou, Jiangxi and Hubei.
This included restricting entry for returnees from low-risk areas or requiring them to undergo centralised isolation at their own expense, spokesman Mi Feng said in Beijing on Saturday.
Anyone encountering unfair obstruction from local officials when returning home could post their grievances on a newly set-up public messaging board on the commission’s website, he said, promising that “we will carefully verify, supervise and rectify”.
