Delta variant spreads to 18 provinces in China

Beijing: The highly contagious Delta variant of the COVID-19 has raised major concerns in China as it spread to 18 provinces with fresh cases emerging in capital Beijing on Sunday. At least 18 provinces in China have sounded alarm about COVID-19 as more than 300 domestic cases were detected in 10 days, posing great challenges to the country as it deals with the worst epidemic in months, official media reported.

At least 27 cities in 18 provinces reported more than 300 confirmed cases in recent days, including Beijing, Jiangsu and Sichuan, state-run Global Times reported on Sunday. Chinese cities rolled out mass testing of millions of people and imposed fresh travel restrictions as health authorities battled to contain the country's most widespread coronavirus outbreak in months.

Negative RT-PCR report has been made mandatory for everyone coming from Kerala to Tamil Nadu from August 5, informed Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramaniyan on Sunday.