As of Saturday 4 p.m., Putian in East China’s Fujian Province had six confirmed COVID-19 cases and 18 asymptomatic carriers, with preliminary studies on the virus indicating it to be the Delta variant, local authorities said at a press conference.
The initial result of the examination of 19 samples was the Delta variant, and the final results will be available in 2-3 days.
The details of the epidemiological investigation have not been released, but experts believe the outbreak is the result of a patient who recently returned to Putian from Singapore.
Putian has assigned a medium-risk rating to five communities and a high-risk rating to two.
Six key villages associated with the cases completed nucleic acid testing of residents on Friday, and the testing has been expanded to 101,000 people in 24 villages, with the testing expected to be completed by Saturday midnight.
Putian announced the suspension of inter-city and inter-province bus services until further notice on Saturday.
The National Health Commission has sent a team to Fujian to help with local epidemic control.