China starts mass testing of 11m people in Wuhan after another COVID outburst

Chinese officials reported eight cases in Wuhan on Tuesday, three of which being symptomatic and five asymptomatic.

Since the preliminary outbreak in the city, authorities have braced down and controlled the disease whenever it pops up with quick lockdowns and mass testing to isolate ill people.

In the 24 hours to Monday evening, 90 new cases were reported across China in which 61 locally spread ones and 29 among people who had recently arrived from abroad.

It comes as China recently saw its worst outbreak of COVID-19 since its first wave.

Thought to have been instigated in Nanjing airport, the virus has spread to at least 15 cities and five provinces.

Most of the local cases are still in the Jiangsu province, where it started, but the country's capital - Beijing - is among those with growing cases in recent days.

Authorities said the Delta variant was the reason behind the increase in infection rates, along with tourism.

Only Chinese vaccines are currently being given in China, where authorities say more than 1.6 billion doses have been administered.

Wuhan, a provincial capital in central China, is just the latest to undergo city-wide testing, following its first non-imported cases in more than a year.

Five other provinces and the cities of Beijing and Shanghai reported new local cases in the single digits. In Shanghai, the nation’s largest city, a driver working at one of its two main airports tested positive. Beijing has reported a total of five cases in recent days.

The Nanjing outbreak, which has been traced to the delta variant, is the source of the cases in most other places. Separately, delta variant outbreaks in two other places have been linked to neighboring Myanmar, which has seen a sharp rise in infections.