A new outbreak of Covid-19 cases is affecting several Chinese provinces, including that of Nanjing, in the south-east of the country.

Faced with the spread of the Delta variant, new containment measures have been put in place, and the authorities are questioning the effectiveness of their vaccine on the variant.

China thought it was done with Covid-19, but a new outbreak of cases is now affecting several provinces in the country.

Even vaccinated people would have fallen ill.

After months of calm, containment measures are back in this country where the pandemic first appeared, in the winter of 2020.

>> Find Europe evening in replay and podcast here

1.6 billion doses already administered

Most of the new patients were however vaccinated, which worries the Chinese a lot about the real effectiveness of their vaccine against the Delta variant. It is this variant which, for the first time, was detected in Nanjing, in the south-east of China, where there are already more than 200 patients. An outbreak certainly limited compared to other countries, but which occurs in a country under a bell where 1.6 billion doses of vaccine have already been administered.

In Nanjing, more than nine million inhabitants have been screened and several neighborhoods placed in strict containment.

"All the inhabitants of the city, including simple visitors, will be screened," assures the deputy director of the Nanjing Health Commission, at the microphone of Europe 1. "Those who live in the most affected areas will be screened. several times to make sure this campaign is really effective. "

Homes in Beijing

This new alert comes after months without new cases.

Even in Beijing, where there were no more sick for six months, several outbreaks have been identified in recent days, and some neighborhoods have been cordoned off and disinfected.