Northern Chinese city imposes travel restrictions amid testing

Travel has been restricted in a northern Chinese city as authorities on Wednesday moved to snuff out a Covid-19 cluster. Ten major highways leading into the city of Shijiazhuang, around 200 miles south of Beijing, have been closed and a bus station was also shut in an attempt to prevent the virus spreading beyond the city in Hebei province. There have been 117 cases in the city -– including at least 63 more reported, 78 of which were asymptomatic, prompting mass testing across the affected area.

The strain detected in China was isolated from a swab of a South African pilot who had entered the province in December and tested positive for Covid-19, the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention said. Its announcement comes days after China confirmed its first case of a new coronavirus variant detected in Britain, prompting widespread concern as both strains are said to be more infectious.