Henan Virus Fight Complicated by Dual Variants

Henan Virus Fight Complicated by Dual Variants

Residents of Anyang, Central China's Henan Province stand in line with their umbrellas in light rain for a second round of nucleic acid testing on January 10, 2022. Photo: VCG

Central China's Henan Province is at the critical juncture of battling dual challenges posed by both the Delta and Omicron variants that have affected seven regions with possibly two or even more sources of infection.

But it is a good sign to see that newly confirmed cases in Henan cities were detected only in epidemic-controlled zones, which means the risk of a larger-scale outbreak is low, experts said.

The local government of Anyang, a city in Henan, which has been battling Omicron since one infected patient is a student who arrived from Tianjin, punished 11 officials and 61 governmental agencies as of Wednesday, for their irresponsibility in the fight against the virus.

An area manager from the Zhengzhou KingMed Clinical Laboratory Center, the largest third-party medical testing institute in the region, surnamed Zhang, was detained by local police on Monday on suspicion of criminal offenses related to causing the spread of COVID-19.

The police notice showed Zhang violated the rules of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, thereby spreading the coronavirus.

After the incident, some netizens claimed that Zhang was detained because he "spread the virus on purpose," or because he "lost the test sample" and thus falsified the data of tests.

Henan on Tuesday registered 118 new confirmed domestic cases. Seven regions in the province have been rattled by COVID-19 so far.

In the face of a complicated epidemic resurgence, the lockdown areas in the province were further extended on Wednesday. In Huaxian, a county administered by Anyang, about 130 kilometers from Zhengzhou and 70 kilometers from Anyang, a lockdown started on Wednesday, after Anyang locked down the city.

Source: Global Times

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