What’s new: Dongguan kicked off citywide Covid-19 testing on Monday after two new infections with the delta coronavirus variant were reported over the weekend in the Guangdong province city.
A 30-year-old woman surnamed Li tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday. She has the delta variant, which was first identified in India, according to the local health authorities in the southern metropolis of over 8 million residents.
Another patient, a 19-year-old male student surnamed Jia had been in close contact with Li and was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Sunday, the authorities said. The Dongguan Campus of Xinhua College of Sun Yat-sen University, where Jia studies and lives, has been locked down, and the town of Machong, where the campus is located, is conducting a third round of mass testing.
What’s more: So far, 86 people who’ve been in close contact with Jia have been put under medical observation in Dongguan’s hospitals, the government said, adding that none of them have tested positive.
Luo Dong, deputy director of the Dongguan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference Sunday that virus samples taken from Li’s body were found to be “highly consistent” with samples taken from her husband, who had been diagnosed with the delta variant in the neighboring city of Shenzhen.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
