Delta variant fear hits China after nine flight-cleaning staff test COVID positive

The fear of lockdown again looms over China after a cluster of new covid infections has been reported from Nanjing city. According to a report by France 24, the Chinese city has reported a total of 184 local COVID-19 cases, after nine cleaners at Nanjing Lukou International Airport tested positive for the deadly virus earlier this week. According to Ding Jie, a health official, the flight which is likely to be linked with the recent surge, was a Russian CA910 flight which was carrying a total of 69 covid positive passengers from Moscow. The flight CA910 was transporting passengers for Chinese cities including Nanjing, Tianjin and Zhengzhou.

Nine workers responsible for the entrance of delta variant in Beijing

Meanwhile, China mouthpiece- Global Times, citing a press release of the Nanjing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Nanjing CDC), said that the sanitation staff involved in the deep cleaning of flight CA910 was not strictly adhered to the coronavirus guidelines, resulting in the recent surge. It added that the infected sanitation workers were responsible for the removal of garbage from both domestic and international flights. Also, those nine cleaning workers were responsible for infecting other airport staff, the press release added. Further, the genetic sequencing of the cleaners at Nanjing Lukou International Airport revealed that a total of 52 people were linked to the staff responsible for the recent outbreak. All those who were traced are suffering from the Delta variant of covid-19, added the release.

41,000 people have been kept under strict lockdown after two test positive

Till now, a total of 206 infections nationwide have been linked to the Nanjing cluster. All of them are suffering from the most contagious variant of the deadly virus. According to a television network based in Paris, at least 41,000 people have been kept under lockdown in Beijing after two locally transmitted cases found in nine housing communities. The report also said that Zhangjiajie in Hunan province has become another covid hotspot after 18 new infections were detected in the tourist city. Though China has always maintained secrecy in terms of data management, the updated figures released by Worldometer says, "at least 92,875 cases have been detected in the country so far, of which 4,636 have lost their lives while 87,307 have been recovered."

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