China’s 18 Provinces Infected By Delta Variant; Country Goes On High Alert

After what ‘seemed’ like a successful control of the virus, the highly contagious Delta variant has raised major concerns in China. In fact, it has spread to 18 provinces including the capital Beijing. The new Delta variant is posing great challenges to the country as it deals with the worst epidemic in months. Besides, the number of medium and high-risk regions in China rose to 95. The new outbreak has caused Chinese officials to place strict restrictions in the region.

Mysterious New Coronavirus Outbreak Hits China

Two cities in the province of Jilin located in northeast China have now been put under strict lockdown restrictions after health authorities placed the threat level in the area to “high-risk”. Jilin is part of a wider province located in the Dongbei region and is home to more than 100 million residents.

As per a Times Of India report, the coronavirus in this new cluster of cases in Jilin is manifesting differently compared to the original outbreak in Wuhan. According to Chinese doctors, this could be a sign that the coronavirus is changing and mutating in ‘unknown’ ways.

According to Qiu, China’s top critical care doctor, patients found in the northern provinces of Jilin and Heilonjiang are appearing to carry the virus for a longer period of time and are also taking longer to recover. And not just that, apparently the cases are also taking longer to develop symptoms after being infected as compared to Wuhan. This delayed onset of symptoms is making it harder for authorities to detect the cases before they spread and has therefore led to a cluster of family infections.

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108 Million People Are Back Into Lockdown In China

Reportedly, around 46 cases have been reported over the past two weeks spread across three cities, Shulan, Jilin and Shengyang. Fearing a second outbreak of the virus, Chinese officials have reinstated lockdown measures. In Jilin, authorities have stopped all major transport facilities to and from the neighboring cities. Whereas in Shulan, all villages and residential compounds have been sealed and residents are only permitted to leave their homes for essential purposes, that too, in a 2-hour slot.

Health officials in the country have also identified two emergency hospitals to treat the suspected spike in COVID-19 infections. Testing is also on in full swing and around 40,000 residents in the cities of Jilin and Shulan have been tested for coronavirus.

However, this is not just scary for China but also the rest of the world! As many countries around the world start to ease lockdown restrictions, they have to be very careful, as the fear of the second wave of the coronavirus is always looming around.

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