[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] - More than 600 locally-transmitted cases found in 19 of China's 31 provinces
- The number of locally-transmitted cases have spiked to a near three-month high
- Chinese government has said there is a 'serious' new outbreak of Delta variant
More provinces in China are fighting Covid-19 than at any time since the deadly pathogen first emerged in Wuhan in 2019.
The highly-infectious delta variant is hurtling across the country despite the increasingly aggressive measures that local officials have enacted in a bid to thwart it. Local infections have been found in 19 of 31 provinces in the world's second-largest economy.
China reported 93 new local cases on Wednesday, and 11 asymptomatic infections. Three more provinces detected cases: central Chongqing and Henan, and Jiangsu on the eastern coast.
Officials in China say they are committed to maintaining a so-called Covid Zero approach despite the flare-ups that are coming faster, spreading further and evading many of the measures that previously controlled it. The severe responses needed to eradicate the delta variant have led several other countries with zero-tolerance practices, including Singapore and Australia, to shift focus and instead rely on high vaccination rates to live with the virus as endemic.
Beijing reported nine infections on Wednesday, including one that was earlier reported as asymptomatic. The capital city's total case count in the current wave now stands at 38, the highest since a pre-delta outbreak last January and February.
Government officials quarantined kids in two schools after a teacher was found to be infected. Another 16 were shut since their staff members might have been present at the vaccination venue where the infected teacher recently received a booster shot.