Flood-hit Chinese city of Zhengzhou starts mass Covid-19 tests after spike in cases
- The city, which was hit by devastating floods last month, reported 32 cases on Saturday
- The Delta variant has fuelled a spike in cases across China, with more than 20 cities reporting new infections
Spikes in coronavirus cases have prompted a flood-hit Chinese city to start mass testing and a popular tourist destination to cut traffic to try to contain the spread of the deadly disease.
Less than a fortnight after it was hit by floods, Zhengzhou, the capital of the central province of Henan is battling a crop of Covid-19 cases at one of its hospitals.
Zhao Dongyang, deputy director of the province’s disease control centre, said on Sunday that DNA sequencing indicated the outbreak was caused by the Delta variant of the virus and the city had to take tougher preventive measures.
Zhang Ruoshi, deputy head of Henan’s health commission, said the outbreak was in the early stages but it still posed a grave challenge to Covid-19 prevention and control”.
Henan authorities have sent 5,400 medical workers to Zhengzhou to help with testing of the city’s roughly 14 million people, the first round of which is expected to be completed on Tuesday.