China is not escaping, it is not escaping this new outbreak of Covid which is affecting many countries.

Beijing on Wednesday announced a tightening of restrictions on foreign travel for its nationals, as China faces a resumption of the Covid-19 epidemic on its soil.

The country has virtually eradicated the disease on its soil since the spring of 2020 and life has largely returned to normal, despite the persistence of a few outbreaks of contamination but sporadic and until then very localized.

But since the discovery last month in Nanjing (east) of new cases of Covid-19, this focus has quickly spread and now affects 17 provinces.

Suspension for an unknown period

To avoid further contamination, China will temporarily "stop issuing passports and other documents" necessary for travel abroad, said one of the officials of the immigration office, Liu Haitao.

The measure applies to Chinese nationals "unless there is a compelling reason," he told reporters.

The duration of the suspension is not known.

And it was not immediately clear whether or not Chinese nationals already in possession of the required documents to travel abroad are allowed to do so.

71 new cases this Saturday

China on Wednesday reported 71 new cases, the highest number of local infections on a day since January.

This increase in contamination is admittedly still very limited compared to the figures recorded in other countries.

But this focus is in terms of geographic extent the most important in recent months in China.

In areas affected by the epidemic, authorities have ordered the suspension of public transport and taxis.

In Beijing, where three cases were reported on Wednesday, authorities blocked the entrances to a residential area where one of the patients lives, AFP journalists noted.

Even in Wuhan

A year and a half after the start of the pandemic, the Covid has also made its return to Wuhan (central China), the first city in the world to have reported at the end of 2019 the existence of what was then only a mysterious virus.

Three new cases were confirmed Monday in the metropolis of 11 million souls, which is screening its inhabitants.

Nanjing (east), the source of the current surge in Covid cases, has already tested its 9 million inhabitants three times.

World

Coronavirus: Delta strain spreads in China, Wuhan affected again

World

Coronavirus in China: Millions of people tested due to rise in Covid cases


  • epidemic

  • Covid 19

  • World

  • Coronavirus

  • China