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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaScience

China records 42 new cases in Fujian’s Covid-19 Delta outbreak

  • Rise comes a day after the province saw its lowest number of daily infections in seven days as Mid-Autumn Festival begins
  • Chinese vice-premier Sun Chunlan who is leading the national pandemic response has now visited all three affected cities

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Volunteers are disinfected in Xiamen, one of three cities in China’s southeastern province of Fujian affected by an outbreak of the Covid-19 Delta variant. Photo: Xinhua
Harvey Kong
Hopes that China’s Fujian province had turned the corner of its Covid-19 outbreak were put on hold on Tuesday, with a surge of 42 new cases in the midst of Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations, bringing the total to 408, including three asymptomatic cases.
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All of the new infections were within the southeastern coastal province, with 36 in Xiamen, five in Putian and one in Quanzhou. No deaths were reported. A day earlier, Fujian had recorded 28 new cases, the lowest number in the past seven days. The outbreak, which began in Putian on September 10, is fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who is leading the national Covid-19 response, continued her tour of the province with further visits to Xiamen and Zhangzhou on Tuesday, according to Fujian Daily. While the fight against the outbreak had achieved some “initial success”, there was still some “uncertainty”, she said. “We cannot be blindly optimistic, we further cannot let our guard down.”

Sun called for faster and more complete nucleic acid testing, as well as more detailed epidemiological investigations to control the spread of the virus. She also called for the strict management of quarantine areas, along with increasing the amount of environmental testing and sanitising at the sites.

Sun, who arrived in Fujian on Saturday, has made several visits to the cities affected by the outbreak.

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Tuesday is also the last day of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday in China, traditionally a time of family gatherings.

However, authorities across the country have taken measures to curb the spread of the virus during the break. Civil servants and staff at Communist Party bodies, public institutions and state-owned enterprises were asked to stay on duty during the holiday to help tackle the outbreak.

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