China warns of the further spread of the emerging coronavirus

 

China warns of the further spread of the emerging coronavirus

 A health official said Sunday that the outbreak of COVID-19 is increasingly likely to spread in China, as authorities urged all regions to intensify surveillance and called for a cut in cross-provincial travel.

China has primarily contained the virus but intends to stamp out sporadic local outbreaks, particularly in the 2022 Winter Olympics in February.

More than 100 locally transferred cases have been confirmed over the past week in 11 regional areas, with most linked to 13 different tourist groups.

National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng told reporters on Sunday that there was an increased risk that the outbreak could spread further with the help of "seasonal factors."

The commission's deputy director, Wu Liangyu, said that the delta variant caused the outbreak is highly transmissible. The sequence showed it was different from the source of a previous attack and indicated that the new cases came from a fresh start from abroad.

Authorities have banned travel agencies from arranging cross-provincial tours that include areas deemed at greater risk of viruses and have imposed a nationwide suspension of some travel services connecting multiple tourist attractions.

The capital, Beijing, said it would impose severe restrictions on travel to the city by people who had visited provinces with at least one infection.

Health authorities also said on Sunday that about 75.6% of China's population had received total vaccine doses as of October 23, or about 1.068 billion people.

China provides booster doses for adults whose last amount was six months ago, with priority groups including workers, the elderly, and those with weaker immune systems. The data showed that antibodies from vaccines, including the most commonly used shots of Sinovac and Sinopharm, declined within months.

Wang Hawking, the chief expert on the immunization program at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that China would not continue to give people booster doses indefinitely.

"Even if it needs boosters later, the number of boosters is limited," Wang said at the press conference.