China orders testing of all 11m in Wuhan as Delta spreads

China suspended flights and trains, cancelled professional basketball league games, and announced mass Covid testing in Wuhan on Tuesday as widening outbreaks of the Delta variant reached the city where the disease was first detected in late 2019.

Beijing: While the total number of cases is still in the hundreds, they are far more widespread than anything China has dealt with since the initial outbreak that devastated Wuhan in early 2020 and over time spread to the rest of the country and the world. China has not eliminated but largely curbed Covid-19 at home with quick lockdowns and mass testing. Most previous outbreaks didn’t spread far beyond a city or province. This time, cases have been confirmed in over 35 cities in 17 of China’s 33 provinces and regions. The cities of Nanjing and Yangzhou have cancelled all domestic flights, and Beijing has halted long-distance trains from 23 stations.