Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan are set to test its entire population for COVID-19 after the city where the coronavirus emerged reported its first local infections in more than a year.
In a press conference, a senior Wuhan official Li Tao said the city of 11 million is swiftly launching comprehensive nucleic acid testing of all residents.
Wuhan officials announced on Monday that seven locally transmitted infections had been found among migrant workers in the city, breaking a year-long streak without domestic cases after it squashed an initial outbreak with an unprecedented lockdown in early 2020.
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From the latest figures, china has reported 61 domestic cases of coronavirus as an outbreak of the fast-spreading delta variant reached dozens of cities.
Major cities including Beijing have now tested millions of residents while cordoning off residential compounds and placing close contacts under quarantine.
According to Worldometre, China has so far recorded 93,193 coronavirus cases and 4,636 deaths since the outbreak in December 2019.
Mainland China recorded 65 new confirmed cases for 19 July, compared with 31 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said in a statement on Tuesday. That was the most since 30 January, when 92 new cases were reported.
Imported infections accounted for most of the new cases reported for 19 July, with Yunnan reporting 41 new cases originating from abroad, all of whom were Chinese nationals who recently returned from Myanmar.
The current bout of cases in Yunnan started on 4 July, and has been concentrated in Ruili and Longchuan, two small cities on China’s border with Myanmar, which has been hit by a sharp uptick in infections since June.
The virus resurgence is proving tough globally, with experts warning that the delta variant could overwhelm healthcare systems.
This as Kenya continues to report double digit COVID-19 positivity rate days after the government reviewed containment measures.
Positivity rate now stands at 12.5 percent after the ministry of health announced 591 new infections from a sample size of 5,217.
Kenya’s caseload now stands at 204,271
Counties with the highest number of new infections include Nairobi, which has 422 new infections, accounting for more than seventy percent of today’s new cases.
Mombasa has 34, Kiambu 19, Uasin Gishu 17, Garissa 14, and Murang’a has ten new cases.
Official data further shows that 561 more patients have recovered from the disease, raising total recoveries to 189,692.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health announced 24 more deaths, pushing cumulative fatalities to 3,970.
Currently 1,483 patients are admitted in various health facilities across the country, with 189 of them fighting for their lives in the intensive care units.
And in terms of vaccination, Kenya has so far administered 1,726,937 covid-19 doses with more than 662,000 people having been fully vaccinated.
COVID in the U.S
COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to march upward in the United States, but the daily number of vaccinations is also rising.
According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average number of new U.S. cases has risen to about 56,000 a day, almost 30,000 more than a week ago.
Meanwhile, the 7-day average of vaccine doses being administered in the United States increased to about 600,000 a day, a jump of 70,000 from a week ago but still well below the 2 million daily average earlier this year.
Overall, the number of new cases in the United States was listed at 367,404 for the week that ended on Sunday, a 63 percent increase from the previous week.
The number of COVID-19 deaths was listed at 1,739 this past week, virtually the same as 1 week ago. That compares to the 3,300 people who were dying per day from the disease in mid-January.
Hospitalizations have risen to more than 27,000, more than 7,000 higher than a week ago.
Overall, the United States has reported almost 34 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. COVID-19-related deaths in the United States have now surpassed 611,000.
Health officials report that the delta variant is now responsible for 83 percent of new COVID-19 cases. In addition, more than 97 percent of people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
