Latest COVID-19 outbreak in China's Fujian under control: official

Patients recovered from COVID-19 leave the hospital in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province, on Sept. 25, 2021. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The latest COVID-19 outbreak in east China's Fujian Province has been brought under control, a health official said Wednesday.

Efforts should be made to consolidate the epidemic prevention and control achievements to prevent a resurgence, Mi Feng, spokesperson for the National Health Commission (NHC), told a press conference in Beijing.

Mi, however, warned that the epidemic situation in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province is still at a critical stage. He called for intensified efforts to contain the spread of the virus in the region.

Since the latest resurgence began on Sept. 10, Fujian had reported a total of 470 local COVID-19 infections in four cities as of Tuesday, while Heilongjiang had reported 75 local infections during the latest outbreak.

No new cases have been reported in the cities of Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Putian in Fujian in recent days, said Cui Gang, an official with NHC's disease control department, adding that the newly reported cases in the province's Xiamen City are on a decline.

The virus strain behind the recent locally transmitted COVID-19 infections in multiple Chinese cities since July has been identified as the Delta variant, Cui noted.