The South China Morning Post reported yesterday (13 Sep) that COVID-19 has broken out in China again and this time it is spreading through the Fujian province of China.
Fujian authorities said that the coronavirus was brought in by a traveller who returned from Singapore on 4 Aug. Gene sequencing showed that the infections were caused by the Delta variant. The traveller had been quarantined in Xiamen for 14 days after arrival and tested negative three times after returning to Putian, a city in eastern Fujian province.
Chinese authorities are moving quickly to suppress the latest COVID-19 outbreak in a bid to prevent the coronavirus from spreading beyond the province of Fujian.
The province reported 22 new cases yesterday, compared with 20 a day earlier. It has found 43 locally transmitted cases since Friday (10 Aug) and put 32 asymptomatic carriers under medical observation.
Fujian authorities have also ordered mass testing for students and teachers in the province to be completed within a week. The city of Xiamen has closed off two districts and a hospital after identifying coronavirus patients. Pupils from a Putian primary school were among the first identified COVID-19 patients in the latest outbreak.
The National Health Commission team sent to Fujian said the coronavirus has been detected in communities, schools and factories in Putian. But it was confident that the outbreak can be contained ahead of the upcoming holiday commemorating the Mid-Autumn festival.
Still, more than 30,000 people are said to have left Putian for other parts of the country between late August to September 10, when the first infections in the latest outbreak were reported.
Already, the city of Quanzhou has found 6 people infected. The city has suspended classes and will continue to test people arriving from Putian. People in Quanzhou and Putian are highly linked in work and life.
