BEIJING (AP) — China's worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic a year and a half ago escalated Wednesday with dozens more cases around the country, the sealing-off of one city and the punishment of its local leaders.

Now, the country is on high alert as an outbreak of cases connected to the international airport in the eastern city of Nanjing touched at least 17 provinces. China reported 71 new cases of COVID-19 from local transmission Wednesday, more than half of them in coastal Jiangsu province, of which Nanjing is the capital.

In Wuhan, the central city where the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in late 2019, mass testing has shown some of its newly reported cases have a high degree of similarity to cases discovered in Jiangsu province. Those cases have been identified as being caused by the highly transmissible delta variant that first was identified in India.

In addition to the 71 cases of local transmission, 25 travelers from overseas have COVID-19 and have entered quarantine, making the total for Wednesday 96 new cases. The National Health Commission also said 15 people tested positive for the virus but have no symptoms.

  • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    r/publicfreakout is already spreading bullshit videos that purport to show the sounds of people screaming as they're welded into their homes.

    • FriendlyDogman [they/them,he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The joys of information warfare. If something happens in China these people will crawl out of the woodwork to post fake videos and feed people a bunch of reactionary bullshit.