Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Tuesday ordered all residents to submit to compulsory coronavirus testing after a string of new cases emerged across the population of 11 million.
China is currently seeing one of its biggest outbreaks in months, with 300 cases detected in 10 days across the country, the BBC reports.
Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged in late 2019 before spreading to the world, had previously boasted of having defeated the virus.
The 11 million-strong residents of Wuhan, source of the global coronavirus pandemic, want everyone to know it is now China’s party central and the Western world “should get used to it.” https://t.co/SJf7650IXC
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 4, 2021
The current outbreaks have spread much more widely than previous ones, reaching multiple provinces and cities including the capital, Beijing.
Many of the cases have been identified as the highly contagious delta variant that is driving a resurgence in many countries.
The National Health Commission said 90 new cases had been confirmed the previous day, 61 locally spread ones and 29 among people who had recently arrived from abroad.
There is no way of checking the figures and doubts have been previously expressed as to the ability of the ruling Chinese Communist Party to honestly alert the world to domestic virus outbreaks.
REVEALED: Chinese researchers say coronavirus infections in the city of Wuhan were at least three times as numerous as the official count. https://t.co/aOaJQRmMHR
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 11, 2021
Government-affiliated scientists have said that Chinese vaccines are less effective against the new strains of the coronavirus but still offer some protection.
Only Chinese vaccines are currently being given in China, where authorities say more than 1.6 billion doses have been administered.
As Breitbart News reported, just 24-hours before the new Wuhan outbreak was confirmed, China’s state-run Global Times admitted “glaring loopholes” in the national government’s epidemic control measures still existed.
AP contributed to this story
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