Over 9 million people sealed off in China’s Nanjing as Delta variant of Covid-19 spreads

The city of Nanjing, capital of China’s Jiangsu Province, on Tuesday have ordered the tightening of restrictive measure and has been virtually sealed off to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection in the city. This has also sealed off more than 9 million people inside their homes.

As per reports, the local health authorities have stated that the result of the genetic sequencing of the virus in the cluster of cases has turned out to be of the fast-spreading Delta variant.

Ding Jie, vice director of the Nanjing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have revealed that they have found new characteristics in the Delta strain after judging it with the previous related outbreaks. It has increased adaptability, can spread faster, has higher virus load, treatment time is longer, and it is easier to contract a severe form of the illness.

Nanjing, a mega-city which has a population of more than 9.3 million, has added more than 100 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases since a few airport workers first tested positive for coronavirus last week.

So far, the virus cluster in Nanjing has involved airport workers and their contacts, but new infections were also reported among flight passengers in other parts of China who have visited the city’s airport.

The city of Nanjing has launched its second all-inclusive nucleic acid testing campaign and urged residents not to leave the city unless necessary.

At least five Chinese provinces and nine cities have reported cases related to the Nanjing outbreak.

On Tuesday, 11 villages and residential compounds in Nanjing were added to the list of medium-risk areas for Covid-19.

The city now has four high-risk areas and 36 medium-risk areas.

All the retail pharmacies in the city suspended selling antipyretic, cough, antiviral and antibiotic medicine to citizens, according to the municipal epidemic prevention and control headquarters.

The city’s major hospitals, excluding emergency departments and fever clinics, were urged to implement appointment registration, while closed venues and offline training services also suspended business, reports Xinhua news agency.

The movie theatres, gymnasiums, indoor swimming pools, bars, bathing venues, “mahjong” halls, chess and card rooms, and other public places in the city have been closed for public.

The city has also put restrictions on the number of people allowed entry at the same time in public place like pharmacies, wholesale markets, shopping malls and supermarkets.

Non-residents including delivery personnel have been are not allowed entry at all residential communities.

The city has also suspended the operation of bus tour services, airports.

Nanjing has reported 47 new cases in the last 24 hours on Wednesday, pushing the total number of coronavirus infections over 150 in the ongoing outbreak.