More and more infections of coronavirus are increasing and seeding succeeding clusters across China. The delta variant is in play despite the country’s well-set system of stringent quarantine and mass testing.
A new outbreak, possibly the largest in China
An outbreak started in Nanjing city airport. Although the country has one of the strongest and comprehensive testing measures in the world, new infections are rising. For the first time in six months, the first locally transmitted infection was found in Beijing. It contains a connection with an outbreak in Hunan among the people who visited Nanjing recently.
The first of the people to contact the virus were nine airport cleaners. Soon, the clusters expanded among their close contacts and so on. Soon enough, almost 200 positive cases of COVID-19 were present. This is one of the biggest outbreaks in China since the last wave of coronavirus that saw about 2,000 cases last winter.
Delta variant of COVID-19 causes havoc across the world
Australia is another country that is hit by the delta strain. The variant is slipping through the country’s mandatory hotel quarantine system much more easily than the past strains. Additionally, an outbreak fuelled by the delta variant forced Sydney into a two-week-long lockdown. Despite Sydney’s efficient contact tracing, cases in Sydney are climbing high as close as 3,000.
Taiwan was months into zero COVID-19 infections. However, it backed out of the tier as the positive cases showed up due to the delta strain. Similar situations are being observed in Singapore and New Zealand.
Vaccines and booster shots
The efficacy of China’s vaccine in preventing coronavirus infections is between 50 to 80 percent. However, the rate is much lower than the 90 percent efficacy of vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer. As of now, the outbreaks are minimal in comparison with clusters in other parts of Southeast Asia and the US.