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China on alert for Covid-19 variant from India as Labour Day stress test looms
- The B.1.617 strain has been detected among some inbound travellers, Chinese health authorities say
- Government expects the number of national holiday trips to reach pre-Covid levels
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China is on high alert after a number of people coming into the country tested positive for a coronavirus variant believed to have helped fuel a catastrophic surge of cases in neighbouring India.
The reports come as China prepares for an immense stress test next week – the five-day Labour Day holiday when travellers are expected to make about 265 million trips around the country.
“We have found the Indian variant [among imported cases] in some cities in China. The public is concerned and worried,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Thursday, without saying how many imported cases involved the variant officially known as B.1.617.
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“[The dramatic surge in India] sounds an alarm bell that the need to contain Covid-19 is far from over.”
National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said found 364 people coming into the country tested positive for the coronavirus in April, a 20 per cent increase from a month earlier.
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In addition, 40 per cent of the 5.75 million new cases reported around the world last week were in neighbouring countries.
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