Health official says multiple clusters detected, advises residents to stay home

The daily tally of new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, hit a record high of 47 on Tuesday, the city's health commission told a news conference on Wednesday.

A total of 153 locally transmitted cases have been reported in Nanjing since July 21, including four who are in severe condition and are receiving treatment at Nanjing Public Health Medical Center, the city's designated hospital for COVID-19.

The strain behind Nanjing's outbreak has been identified as the highly contagious delta variant, the city's center for disease control and prevention said on Tuesday.

In Nanjing, Jiangsu's provincial capital, most of the newly confirmed cases have been linked to the city's Lukou International Airport and neighboring areas, the commission said.

"Multiple cluster infections have been detected in Nanjing," Yang Dasuo, the commission's deputy director, told Wednesday's news conference.

He urged residents to avoid gatherings, stay home and stop visiting others.

Confirmed cases have been found among people across a range of occupations, including a taxi driver and a photographer, as well as students. Young children, including an 8-month-old boy, have also been infected.

The Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University has formed a team of 32 medical workers from its intensive care unit and respiratory and infectious disease departments to help treat the children.

As of Wednesday, Nanjing had four high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 42 medium-risk ones.

Suqian, another city in Jiangsu, reported one new locally transmitted case, the Jiangsu Provincial Health Commission said. The 7-year-old is the daughter of the city's first confirmed case, who tested positive after visiting Nanjing.

Yangzhou, a popular tourist city in Jiangsu, reported that one person tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. The person arrived in Yangzhou from Nanjing by bus on July 21 and went to hospital on Tuesday.

Yangzhou launched large-scale testing in its downtown areas on Wednesday and shut down public spaces like gymnasiums and after-school training institutions.

Five locally transmitted cases and an asymptomatic case were reported in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the city's health commission said at a news conference on Wednesday evening.

Three of the six cases were members of a family that had spent over a week in Hunan province. They visited Changde, Hunan, from Friday to Sunday after touring Zhangjiajie, also in Hunan.

The other three cases had also been to Hunan.

Changde's Wuling district reported one new locally transmitted asymptomatic case on Wednesday, the district's COVID-19 response headquarters said. The 36-year-old woman had been in contact with the three newly confirmed cases reported in Chengdu.