China is experiencing the worst coronavirus outbreak since last January.

Concern is already mounting about the Winter Olympics, which will take place in 6 months, and more drastic measures than those taken for this summer's competition should be taken by the authorities.

In China, the number of coronavirus cases reached its highest level in seven months after a cluster in a testing center, which jumped the figures amid the outbreak of the Delta variant.

In Wuhan, the worst toll has even been reached since the first patients of the epidemic at the end of 2019. Large-scale screenings are therefore organized by the Chinese authorities, worried about the situation, because most of the patients have been vaccinated.

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We understand, in fact, from official statements, that Chinese vaccines, currently the only ones available in the country, are not effective against the Delta variant.

The authorities have therefore decided to rely on traditional methods of fighting the epidemic, namely tracing, screening and isolation.

Beijing is therefore almost cut off from the rest of China and some thirty cities are no longer connected to the capital: planes and trains no longer circulate.

Check points have also been set up at the entrances to Beijing and there are reports of a wait that can sometimes reach 16 hours to pass the roadblocks and control the equivalent of the Chinese health pass.

Drastic measures for the Winter Olympics

In several cities like Nanjing and Wuhan, the tests are being carried out up to six times a week and per person, as explained by Lio Tao, who works at the latter's town hall.

"We have already screened several times all of the 11 million inhabitants. Children must return to the city and be screened before the start of the school year, even those under six," he explains.

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And the other subject that worries the Chinese authorities is the Winter Olympics, which will take place in just six months, in Beijing.

And the capital intends to go further beyond the measures taken during the Tokyo Games this summer.

The anti-Covid range is already thrilling: guards in anti-bacteriological suits, athletes giving interviews behind plastic sheeting, thermometers taped under the armpits, sportsmen with tiny transmitters to give the alert in case of fever ...

Finally, the delegations will be permanently separated from each other.

There remains the question of quarantine on arrival in China: it is currently twice three weeks for Beijing, so it is difficult to imagine that the athletes will accept such measures.