Written by Will Hekman
The Chinese Government has sealed off the city of Zhangjiajie after an outbreak of coronavirus was reported and has punished the local leaders for failure in the prevention of the pandemic. Another outbreak was reported and is connected to the airport in the coastal city of Nanjing where 71 new cases have been reported. The new cases found in Nanjing have been identified as being the delta variant of COVID-19.
In the city of Zhangjiajie in the Hunan province in Southern China, the government ordered on Sunday that all 1.5 million residents must stay indoors. On Tuesday, another announcement was made that no person, tourist or resident, could leave the city. The area of Zhangjiajie is a well-known scenic area with a number of caves, waterfalls, and cliffs. The area was used as inspiration for the landscape for the movie “Avatar”.
The local Communist Party disciplinary committee issued a list of local officials who were deemed as having a negative impact on pandemic prevention and said that those officials would be punished. Only 19 new cases have been reported in Zhangjiajie, with three people reporting no symptoms, but cases linked to Zhangjiajie have spread to at least five provinces. In comparison, the city of Yangzhou reported 126 new cases on Tuesday.
China has reported that they have distributed 1.7 billion vaccines, but it is unclear whether how many of those are just first doses or both doses. China has reported that at least 40% of its citizens are fully protected.
