Delta variant challenges China's virus strategy

(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 fl