中国和病毒是在硬磕，真正考验双方的韧性。

contained its worst coronavirus flareup in：控制住了最严重的冠状病毒爆发

keeps a separate count of：分别计算

reset cases to zero：将病例归零

keep it at bay：避免发生

produce a negative coronavirus test：出示冠状病毒检测呈阴性报告

一名从海外回国后完成21天强制隔离的男子被确认为新疫情的可能源头，中国东南部沿海省份福建省爆发的新冠肺炎疫情已经感染了60多人，其中包括15名小学生。

而就在两周之前，中国刚刚控制住了一年多来最严重的冠状病毒疫情，突显出高传染性德尔塔病毒变种带来的日益严峻的挑战。

周四，莆田市仙游县一所小学在例行的新冠病毒检测中首次发现了这两名年轻的兄弟。莆田市政府在周五的新闻发布会上说，另一名学生和三名家长第二天检测呈阳性。

专家建议指出，最近从新加坡回来的一位父亲可能是疫情爆发的源头，这名男子于8月4日抵达福建主要沿海城市厦门，在那里他被强制隔离了14天。他又在仙游指定地点集中隔离了7天，然后返回家中接受了一周的健康监测。

在21天的隔离期间，他曾9次检测出病毒阴性，直到上周五(进入中国后的第37天)检测出阳性。中国当局没有透露这名男子是在何时、何地或如何感染病毒的，但超过21天的潜伏期是极不寻常的。

广东省疾病预防控制中心的研究人员发现，Delta变种的平均潜伏期为4天，而原始菌株平均需要6天。这导致一些人在社交媒体上质疑，这名男子是否是在回到仙游后感染上病毒的。

在莆田，当局下令290万居民除非绝对必要，不得离开城市。有正当理由离开的人必须在过去48小时内冠状病毒检测呈阴性。电影院、健身房、酒吧和图书馆都关闭了，幼儿园、小学和高中都关闭了，并被要求在网上上课。在仙游，公共交通和出租车服务暂停，离开县城的公交车和火车也暂停了。

China’s strict 21 day quarantine under question after new outbreak emerges

By Nectar Gan and Steve George, CNN

Updated 1032 GMT (1832 HKT) September 13, 2021

Hong Kong (CNN)A man who completed 21 days of mandatory quarantine^[1] upon returning to China from overseas has been identified as the likely source of a new outbreak, raising questions over the sustainability of the country’s stringent zero-Covid strategy.

The fresh outbreak in Fujian province on China’s southeastern coast has infected more than 60 people, including 15 elementary school pupils. It emerged just two weeks after China contained its worst coronavirus flareup in^[2] more than a year, highlighting the increasing challenge posed by the highly contagious Delta variant — even to a country with some of the world’s strictest, most far-reaching^[3] containment measures.
The latest infections were first detected in two young brothers during a routine Covid test^[4] at a elementary school in Xianyou county, Putian city, on Thursday. Another student and three parents tested positive the next day, the Putian municipal government said at a press conference Friday.
Experts advising the government have pointed to one of the parents — a father who recently returned from Singapore — as the likely source of the outbreak, despite the man having completed a lengthy quarantine on arrival in China.
The man arrived in Xiamen, a major coastal hub in Fujian, on August 4, where he underwent 14 days of compulsory hotel quarantine. He spent another 7 days in centralized quarantine at a designated location^[5] in Xianyou, before returning home for a further week of health monitoring, according to the Putian government.
He had tested negative for the virus nine times during 21 days of quarantine, before testing positive on Friday — 37 days after entering China, according to state media.
China’s border restrictions and mandatory quarantine requirements for overseas arrivals are among the strictest in the world. Since containing the initial outbreak in Wuhan, the Chinese government has blamed every local flareup on transmission from abroad — either through travelers or imported goods.
Chinese authorities did not reveal when, where or how the man caught the virus, but an incubation period^[6] longer than 21 days is highly unusual.
Researchers at the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that the Delta variant has an average incubation period of 4 days, compared with an average of 6 days for the original strain.
Some have questioned on social media if the man picked up the virus after he returned to Xianyou.
As of Sunday afternoon, Putian had reported 32 confirmed cases and 32 asymptomatic infections, according to the Putian government. China keeps a separate count of^[7] symptomatic and asymptomatic cases and does not include asymptomatic carriers of the virus in the official tally of confirmed cases^[8].
Infections have also spread to other cities in the province. On Monday, China’s National Health Commission said 6 locally transmitted cases were reported in Quanzhou, and another in Xiamen.
The cases came on the heels of^[9] another Delta-driven outbreak, which spread to more than half of China’s provinces and infected over 1,200 people after emerging in late July in the eastern province of Jiangsu. The surging cases were seen as the biggest challenge yet to China’s uncompromising^[10] zero tolerance policy on Covid-19.
Local authorities responded by placing tens of millions of residents under strict lockdown^[11], rolling out massive testing and tracing campaigns and restricting domestic travel. By late August, health officials announced that the outbreak had been “effectively brought under control.”
While the zero-Covid strategy appeared to have worked, experts say it took longer for Chinese authorities to bring infection back to zero compared with previous flareups.
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the strategy is facing a problem of diminishing returns^[12] when dealing with the highly transmissible Delta variant.
“It’ll become more and more difficult to sustain that approach, in terms of the time, the organizational energy, and the financial and economic pains^[13] it takes to reset cases to zero^[14],” he said. “No matter how stringent the travel restrictions are, you’ll continue to have cases imported and triggering outbreaks in the country.”
Countries like Australia and Singapore are already shifting to a new approach of learning to live with the virus, after relying on the zero-Covid strategy to keep it at bay^[15] for much of the past year. In Australia, the public has grown increasingly resentful of^[16] strict lockdown measures, with anti-lockdown protests breaking out in the country’s largest cities despite surging cases last month.

注友新闻

注释

[1] mandatory quarantine

注释:强制隔离

[2] contained its worst coronavirus flareup in

注释:控制住了最严重的冠状病毒爆发

[3] far-reaching

注释:影响深远的

备注:美 [ˌfɑː ˈriːtʃɪŋ]
英 [ˌfɑː ˈriːtʃɪŋ]
adj. 深远的；广泛的；伸至远处的

[4] a routine Covid test

注释:例行的Covid检测

[5] a designated location

注释:一个指定的位置

[6] an incubation period

注释:一个潜伏期

[7] keeps a separate count of

注释:分别计算

[8] official tally of confirmed cases

注释:官方统计的确诊病例

[9] came on the heels of

注释:紧随其后

[10] uncompromising

注释:不妥协的

备注:美 [ʌnˈkɒmprəmaɪzɪŋ]
英 [ʌnˈkɒmprəmaɪzɪŋ]
adj. 不妥协的，不让步的；坚定的

[11] placing tens of millions of residents under strict lockdown

注释:数千万居民被严格封锁

[12] diminishing returns

注释:收益递减

备注:收益递减；报酬递减

[13] financial and economic pains

注释:金融和经济痛苦

[14] reset cases to zero

注释:将病例归零

[15] keep it at bay

注释:避免发生

[16] grown increasingly resentful of

注释:越来越怨恨

Chinas strict 21 day quarantine under question after new outbreak emerges(2)

China, however, has doubled down on its stringent containment efforts^[1], which have been hailed by the ruling Communist Party as proof of the supposed superiority^[2] of its authoritarian political system.
In Putian, authorities ordered its 2.9 million residents not to leave the city unless absolutely necessary. Those with legitimate reasons to leave must produce a negative coronavirus test^[3] taken within the past 48 hours. Cinemas, gyms, bars and libraries were shut, while kindergartens, primary schools and high schools were closed and ordered to conduct classes online.
In Xianyou, public transport and taxi services were suspended, as were buses and trains leaving the county.
In China, such restrictive measures remain broadly popular among the public, partly because they are only applied to a small section of the country’s 1.4 billion population each time, with the majority of people enjoying the benefits associated with covid-free living, rather than the inconvenience of protracted lockdowns^[4].
“This is natural. When you’re not the victims of the lockdown, you are going to support any measure that makes you safe. Even if you’re subject to a lockdown, you might still find it tolerable because it only happens so rarely,” said Huang, the global health fellow.
But he warned that public support and tolerance might wear off^[5] if the pandemic drags on^[6].
“(The Chinese authorities) will be constantly imposing new lockdown measures. I think eventually, the public support will be undermined,” he said.

注友新闻

注释

[1] doubled down on its stringent containment efforts

注释:加强了严格的控制措施

[2] supposed superiority

注释:所谓优势

[3] produce a negative coronavirus test

注释:出示冠状病毒检测呈阴性报告

[4] protracted lockdowns

注释:长期封锁

[5] wear off

注释:逐渐消失

备注:磨损；逐渐消逝

[6] drags on

注释:拖得很长

备注:拖延
If the questioning drags on
    如果质问拖得很长