Delta is a warning: WHO sounds alarm as China experiences a massive surge

Delivery men pass items to residents outside a residential area after access to the area was restricted due to the virus in Beijing. Pic/AFP

Mushrooming outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant prompted China and Australia to impose stricter Covid-19 restrictions on Saturday as the WHO urged the world to quickly contain the mutation before it turns into something deadlier and draws out the pandemic.

China's most serious surge of Coronavirus infections in months spread to two more areas Saturday - Fujian province and the sprawling megacity of Chongqing.

More than 200 cases have been linked to a Delta cluster in Nanjing city, where nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive.

The nation where the disease first emerged has rushed to prevent the highly transmissible strain from taking root by putting more than one million people under lockdown and reinstituting mass testing campaigns.

Worldwide, Coronavirus infections are once again on the upswing, with the WHO announcing an 80 per cent average increase over the past four weeks in five of the health agency's six regions, a jump largely fuelled by the Delta variant.

First detected in India, it has now reached 132 countries and territories. "Delta is a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge," the WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference.

Masks for those over 2 years in Chicago

Authorities in the US city of Chicago have issued a new mask mandate that requires everyone over the age of two to wear masks when indoors. In a statement issued on Friday, the Chicago Department of Public Health recommended that "businesses, employers, and event organisers require universal masking in all public indoor settings". The new guidance keeps masks outdoors optional and makes no changes to the recommendations for social distancing.

19,81,67,214
TOTAL Number OF CORONAVIRUS

CASES IN THE WORLD

42,27,819
Number OF DEATHS WORLDWIDE

17,90,44,037
Number OF RECOVERED PATIENTS

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