(5 Aug 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4338307

The delta variant of the coronavirus is challenging China's costly strategy of isolating cities.
China's President Xi Jinping's government is fighting the most serious outbreak since last year's peak in Wuhan as the highly contagious variant pushes leaders in the United States, Australia and elsewhere to renew restrictions.
The Communist Party is reviving tactics that shut down China: cutting access to a city of 1.5 million people, cancelling flights and ordering mass testing in some areas.
The new infections have jolted global financial markets, which worry Beijing's response might disrupt manufacturing and supply chains.
Some new infections are among people who have already been vaccinated.
Most new cases have tentatively been traced to airport employees who cleaned a Russian airliner on July 10 in Nanjing, northwest of Shanghai in Jiangsu province, according to health officials.
Some travelers flew through Nanjing to Zhangjiajie, a popular tourist spot southwest of Shanghai in Hunan province, turning that city into a center for the virus's spread.
The disease was carried to Beijing and other cities in at least 17 provinces.
The "zero tolerance" strategy of quarantining every case and trying to block new infections from abroad helped to contain last year's outbreak and has kept China largely virus free.
But its impact on work and life for millions of people is prompting warnings that China needs to learn to control the virus without repeatedly shutting down the economy and society.
Han Fei had to give up one of his two jobs in Beijing as restrictions have stopped him from commuting between the two employers.
His monthly income was cut by half, he said.
"My credit card payment is overdue," Han said, "the epidemic is having huge impact on me, really."

#China #Covid19 #DeltaVariant
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