A kid receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a school in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Nov. 23, 2021. Hohhot recently launched a COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children aged 3 to 11. Photo: Xinhua

Hohhot of North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in the country's northern border area, has fallen victim to another COVID-19 surge fueled by the Delta variant, with some 161 people infected in six days. The epidemic is believed to be imported from overseas and spreading among local communities in a hidden way, triggered by two wedding banquets held over a week before the first infections were reported. 

The first three infections were staffers working at a garbage transfer station in the city, but were not the initial source of infection, local officials said. Instead, the source of infection is believed to be two people who returned to the city's Wuchuan county and the neighboring city Baotou, which has seen nine confirmed cases in the latest round. 

However, the first three infections in Hohhot had neither traveled to Wuchuan county nor Baotou recently, suggesting the virus has been transmitting in a hidden track among communities.

The virus sequence of the three cases showed it's the Delta variant. 

Two wedding banquets held in a hotel on February 8 have been found to be the key sources of the hidden transmission, authorities noted. 

The banquets involved some 165 participants, and authorities haven't said how many confirmed cases were found among them. They warned, however, that since the weddings were held eight days before the first infections were reported, coupled with a frequent personnel flow during the Spring Festival holidays, hidden virus transmission has been underway for many days resulting in multiple cluster infections in Hohhot and Baotou. 

Hohhot registered 30 new confirmed cases on Sunday, the first fall in number from the 63 confirmed cases in the previous day. 

Most of the new confirmed cases were found among people who are already under quarantine in locked-down areas, and the number of positive cases is declining. 

The National Health Commission said the epidemic in Hohhot is still at an early stage and has led to cluster infections in crowded public venues, so the risk of community spread is still high. The city will conduct the third round of citywide nucleic acid test starting Monday. 

Global Times