Transport into Beijing cut to guard capital ‘at all costs’ against Covid-19 surge

Despite the high coronavirus vaccination rate in Beijing, some flights, trains and buses to the Chinese capital have been cancelled and other control measures stepped up to stop an outbreak of the Covid-19 Delta variant spreading through the city.

Tighter control came as the country faced its biggest challenge since first containing the virus early last year. More than 350 people in 27 mainland cities have been infected, including confirmation on Monday afternoon of seven infections in the central city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected. The cases add to an outbreak that has grown since the more transmissible Delta strain was first detected in nine cleaners at Nanjing airport in eastern Jiangsu province on July 20.

In China, more than 1.66 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered by Sunday, still a long way from reaching an immunity barrier for the 1.4 billion population.

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan spent four days from July 29 in Jiangsu – where 215 symptomatic Covid-19 cases were reported by Monday – to supervise epidemic control measures, including infection source tracing, coronavirus testing and materials supply in sealed-off residential areas, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Sun’s visit signalled the severity of the epidemic after she took similar trips for some outbreaks – such as those in Xinjiang, Jilin and Harbin – last year but not others, such as the community spread of the Delta variant in May. Her trip came after two deputy ministers went separately to Nanjing last month to help with epidemic control.