The man arrived in Xiamen, a major coastal center of Fujian, on August 4, where he spent 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine. He spent seven more days in centralized quarantine at a designated location in Xianyou, before returning home for another week of health surveillance, according to the Putian government.
He had tested negative for the virus nine times for 21 days in quarantine, before testing positive on Friday – 37 days after entering China, according to state media.
China’s border restrictions and mandatory quarantine requirements for arrivals abroad are among the strictest in the world. Since containing the initial outbreak in Wuhan, the Chinese government has blamed all local savings on transmission from abroad, whether through travelers or imported goods.
Chinese authorities did not reveal when, where or how the man caught the virus, but an incubation period of more than 21 days is very unusual.
Some have asked on social media if the man caught the virus after returning to Xianyou.
On Sunday afternoon, Putian had reported 32 confirmed cases and 32 asymptomatic infections, according to the Putian government. China maintains a separate count of symptomatic and asymptomatic cases and does not include asymptomatic carriers of the virus in the official count of confirmed cases.
The cases came after another outbreak by Delta, which spread to more than half of China’s provinces and infected more than 1,200 people after it erupted in late July in eastern Jiangsu Province. . Growing cases were seen as the biggest challenge of China’s zero-tolerance policy on Covid-19.
Local authorities responded by placing tens of millions of residents under strict closure, conducting massive testing and tracking campaigns, and restricting national travel. In late August, health officials announced that the outbreak had been “effectively controlled.”
Although the zero-covida strategy seemed to work, experts say Chinese authorities took longer to return the infection to zero compared to previous eruptions.
Yanzhong Huang, a senior global health member of the Foreign Relations Council, said the strategy faces a problem of diminished returns when it comes to the highly transmissible Delta variant.
“It will be increasingly difficult to maintain this focus, in terms of time, organizational energy, and the financial and economic problems needed to reset cases to zero,” he said. “No matter how strict the travel restrictions are, you will continue to have imported cases and cause outbreaks in the country.”
China, however, has doubled its strict containment efforts, which have been hailed by the ruling Communist Party as proof of the supposed superiority of its authoritarian political system.
In Putian, authorities ordered its 2.9 million residents not to leave the city unless absolutely necessary. People who have legitimate reasons to leave must have a negative coronavirus test performed within the last 48 hours. Cinemas, gyms, bars and libraries were closed, while kindergartens, primary schools and institutes were closed and online classes were ordered.
In Xianyou, public transportation and taxi services were suspended, as well as buses and trains leaving the county.
In China, these restrictive measures continue to be widely popular among citizens, in part because they only apply to a small portion of the country’s population each year with 1.4 billion people, most people enjoy the benefits associated with covide-free life, rather than discomfort from prolonged blockages.
“This is natural. When you are not a victim of closure, you will support any measure that protects you. Even if you are subject to closure, you may find it tolerable because it only happens so rarely,” said Huang, the health fellow. world.
But he warned that public support and tolerance could be exhausted if the pandemic drags on.
“(Chinese authorities) will constantly impose new blocking measures. I think public support will eventually be undermined,” he said.