Wuhan Reports 52 Covid Cases in Arrivals From Afghanistan

What’s new: Fifty-two travelers arriving in central China’s Wuhan tested positive for Covid-19 in one of the largest clusters of imported infections recorded in China, the Hubei provincial health authority reported Wednesday.

The travelers flew from Afghanistan to Wuhan Friday on a chartered flight operated by Xiamen Air. Among the positive cases, 22 were confirmed with Covid-19 while 30 were asymptomatic, the Hubei health commission said.

The flight, MF8008, was an emergency chartered flight to evacuate Chinese nationals from Afghanistan amid the country’s worsening security situation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday. The patients were hospitalized and their close contacts were put under quarantine, the ministry said.

The background: China, the first pandemic epicenter, faces mounting pressures to contain imported cases as the country has largely kept the domestic outbreak under control.

The task becomes more complicated with the spread of highly transmissible new variants around the world.

In June, an Air China flight from South Africa to Shenzhen reported 32 infections. All the patients were found to have the highly transmissible new Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full story in Chinese, click here.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.

Follow the Chinese markets in real time with Caixin Global’s new stock database.