Delta variant spreads in Hubei, Hunan provinces

Hubei province identified nine new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 and three asymptomatic carriers on Tuesday, the Hubei Health Commission said on Wednesday.

All the cases were reported in Wuhan, which has reported 12 confirmed locally transmitted cases in the past two days, and are linked to one construction site, said Liu Dongru, deputy director of the commission, at a news conference.

Restrictions on entrance and exit have been imposed on 56 residential communities in Wuhan. Hubei province now has a total of 15 confirmed locally transmitted cases, including one in Huanggang and two in Jingzhou.

All the patients had the Delta variant which points to a connection with the outbreak in Nanjing, Li Yang, deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday.

Neighboring Hunan province reported 15 new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the Hunan Health Commission said on Wednesday. Zhuzhou reported 12 locally transmitted cases and Zhangjiajie reported three.

Twenty public officials in Zhangjiajie have been punished for poor performance in epidemic prevention and control, according to a statement issued by the city’s commission for discipline inspection on Tuesday.

Liu Kun in Wuhan and Zhu Youfang in Changsha contributed to this story.