Beijing (AFP)

It has been more than a year since the Covid-19 disappeared from the streets of Wuhan.

The Chinese city where the epidemic first appeared at the end of 2019 is in turn affected by a limited outbreak and will screen all its inhabitants.

Three new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed on Monday in the metropolis of 11 million souls, caught by an outbreak of the Delta strain that appeared last month in the east of the country.

The previous cases recorded in the city dated back to May 2020.

This epidemic resurgence is a blow to the city, the first in the world to have been placed in quarantine as of January 23, 2020, and for 76 days.

After life had gradually returned to normal there, its inhabitants flattered themselves that they now live in "the safest city in the world", compared to the effects of the pandemic, which has killed more than 4 million people. on the surface of the globe.

The city on the banks of the Yangtze "is rapidly launching a generalized PCR screening of all its inhabitants," Li Tao, an official at the town hall, announced at a press conference.

A total of seven workers from other provinces have tested positive, authorities said on Monday.

Four of them, however, do not show symptoms of the disease.

- The arsenal comes out -

China, which virtually eradicated the epidemic in the spring of 2020, has been facing the most widespread resurgence of the virus since last year for a few weeks.

# photo1

With more than 400 new infections since mid-July, this increase in contamination remains however very limited compared to the figures recorded in other countries.

But this focus is important in terms of geographic extent: more than a dozen provinces are now affected as well as Beijing, the capital, which on Sunday called on its inhabitants not to leave the city unless there is a compelling reason.

Faced with the risk of an epidemic resurgence, the communist regime once again released an arsenal of radical measures similar to those of the beginning of 2020: containment, limitation of travel, generalized screening.

On Tuesday, the country reported 61 new cases of local origin (and not directly imported), as the Delta strain spreads after infecting employees responsible for cleaning planes at Nanjing airport (east).

The population of this city of more than 9 million inhabitants has already been screened twice and a third test campaign is underway.

Not far from the former capital, the city of Yangzhou has ordered its residents to stay at home after 40 new cases were identified on Monday alone.

Only one member of each household is authorized to go out, once a day, to ensure supplies.

# photo2

China has also distributed more than 1.65 billion doses of the vaccine since last year.

Many infected people had already been vaccinated, authorities admitted, raising fears about the effectiveness of Chinese injections, the only ones available in the country.

© 2021 AFP