China’s latest COVID-19 outbreak is increasingly likely to spread further, a health official said on Sunday, as authorities urged all regions to step up monitoring and called for a reduction in travel across provinces.
China has largely contained the virus but it is determined to stamp out any sporadic local outbreaks, particularly in the run-up to the 2022 Winter Olympics in February.
More than 100 locally transmitted cases have been confirmed over the last week across 11 provincial areas, with most linked to 13 different tour groups. There is an increasing risk that the outbreak might spread further, helped by seasonal factors, said Mi Feng, a spokesman at the National Health Commission.
Authorities have banned travel agencies from arranging cross-provincial tours that involve regions deemed of higher virus risk, and have imposed the nationwide suspension on some travel services linking multiple tourist attractions.
The Delta variant causing the outbreak is also highly transmissible, said commission deputy director Wu Liangyou, adding that sequencing showed it to be different from the source of an earlier outbreak, and suggesting that the new cases came from a new source from abroad.
China has largely contained the virus but it is determined to stamp out any sporadic local outbreaks, particularly in the run-up to the 2022 Winter Olympics in February.
More than 100 locally transmitted cases have been confirmed over the last week across 11 provincial areas, with most linked to 13 different tour groups. There is an increasing risk that the outbreak might spread further, helped by seasonal factors, said Mi Feng, a spokesman at the National Health Commission.
Authorities have banned travel agencies from arranging cross-provincial tours that involve regions deemed of higher virus risk, and have imposed the nationwide suspension on some travel services linking multiple tourist attractions.
The Delta variant causing the outbreak is also highly transmissible, said commission deputy director Wu Liangyou, adding that sequencing showed it to be different from the source of an earlier outbreak, and suggesting that the new cases came from a new source from abroad.
