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 The virus situation in the city of Putian is "serious and complex"
and it is very likely more new cases will emerge in communities,
schools and factories, state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday.
Certain offline lessons in schools have also been suspended in
Putian and China's national health authority has sent a team of
experts to the city, which has a population of 3.2 million.
A total of 43 local cases had been reported in Fujian between Sept.
10 and Sept. 12, including 35 in Putian, data from the National
Health Commission (NHC) shows.
Another 32 asymptomatic cases, which China does not count as
confirmed cases before they show clinical signs such as fever, have
been detected in the province since Sept. 10, all in Putian city.
As of Sept. 12, mainland China, where COVID-19 first emerged in late
2019, had recorded 95,248 confirmed cases, with a cumulative death
toll of 4,636.
China's last outbreak, which affected mainly Jiangsu, ended about
two weeks ago, with no new local cases reported in the eastern
province. That outbreak lasted a month.
Preliminary testing on samples from some Putian cases showed
patients had contracted the highly transmissible Delta variant, a
local health official said on Saturday.
The first few infections, found during routine testing, were
elementary students in Xianyou county in Putian. Experts suspected
the source of the outbreak might be a student's parent who had
travelled to the county from nearby Xiamen city after arriving from
Singapore, state media reported on Saturday.
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 Xianyou, with a population of
about 900,000, has sealed up some areas deemed
of higher risk and started a testing drive.
The county has also halted buses and taxi services, closed a
long-distance bus station, and barred passengers from boarding or
getting off from its train station, state media said.
Putian said on Sunday it will suspend operations of indoor
entertainment venues including chess and card parlours, cinemas,
theatres, internet cafes and bars, as well as libraries, museums and
gyms, and will shorten opening hours and curb patron traffic at
restaurants.
Putian residents should not leave the city for non-essential
reasons, and those who leave should produce proof of negative test
results within 48 hours before departure.
The city has suspended from Monday all offline lessons at all
kindergartens and elementary schools in Putian city, and most
offline lessons at high schools.
Among a total of 20 highway entries and exits in the city, 12 have
barred vehicles from entering or leaving.
Outside Putian since Sept. 10, seven locally confirmed cases have
been found in Quanzhou city and one in Xiamen, both in Fujian
province.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo, Roxanne Liu and Liangping Gao; Editing by
Himani Sarkar and Angus MacSwan)
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