Mahjong Photo: cnsphoto

 Nanjing and Yangzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province have suspended all in and out of road passenger transportation, tourism charted buses and taxis amid the latest outbreak. 

Jiangsu health authority reported 45 new confirmed COVID-19 cases at a press conference on Tuesday with five of them discovered in Nanjing and the other 40 in Yangzhou.

Since July 20, the provincial capital city Nanjing has reported a total of 220 cases during the outbreak fueled by the rampaging Delta variant while Yangzhou reported a total of 94 cases with two asymptomatic cases.

The two cities have suspended all road passenger transportation and tourism charted buses as well as taxis, including online car-hailing services. Railway passengers have to provide negative COVID-19 nucleic acid testing results taken within 48 hours when leaving Nanjing and Yangzhou, officials said. 

Domestic flights in and out of Nanjing and Yangzhou have all been suspended, according to the officials.  

The Jiangsu authority also said they would close the highway when it is necessary depending on the situation of the epidemic.

They have vowed to enhance management on personnel working on international ships arriving in the province or those working in cold chain industry of imported goods. The authority also said they will conduct nucleic acid testing on employees at high risk infection sites every three days. 

Zhou Minghao, a Jiangsu provincial health official, said 44 percent of the cases in Nanjing are employees at the Lukou International Airport and another 52 percent are people who were in close contact with them. There are also eight cases, those who either visited or transferred through the airport.

As to the cases in Yangzhou, 64 percent of them got infected in mahjong halls, according to Zhou. 

Jiangsu authority had closed 45,371 mahjong halls and postponed or canceled 19 grant activities scheduled in August, said Shang Jianrong, an official from the Jiangsu provincial public security department,  at the Tuesday press conference.   

The first case discovered in Yangzhou, a 70-year-old woman surnamed Mao who came from Nanjing on July 21, has been detained for disturbing anti-infectious disease work as she failed to report her travel history to Nanjing as required, and led to the virus spreading in the city, Yangzhou police announced Tuesday afternoon.   

Global Times