美国国家公共电台 NPR--A surge in COVID-19 spurs new lockdowns in China's cities

A surge in COVID-19 spurs new lockdowns in China's cities

Transcript¹

The entire Chinese province of Jilin is under lockdown as COVID-19 cases surge across the country.

Jilin's daily case counts topped 4,067 on Monday alone, leaving health officials scrambling² to catch up to the highly transmissible omicron variant³.

China is combating the highest level of COVID-19 cases ever, with more than 10,000 cases scattered⁴ across 27 provinces and municipalities since the start of this month.

China's tried and true method for keeping cases close to zero for more than two years has been to trace, test, and isolate⁵ all infections, their close contacts, and the close contacts of those contacts faster than the virus can spread.

In the latest surge, however, the highly transmissible omicron variant has moved more quickly than contact tracing allows.

The result has been a return to full lockdowns for Jilin's 24 million residents, who are now forbidden to leave as of Monday and are required to shelter at home. In Shanghai and Beijing, all schooling⁶ has been moved online indefinitely.

Langfang, in Beijing's northern Hebei province, as well as Shenzhen and Dongguan cities, in China's south, are also under lockdown as of Tuesday. Two other cities — Shanghai and Xi'an — have put in place some lockdown measures.

China has contained omicron outbreaks before, but none has grown as big as the current surge. The strain is already showing as cities are running out of isolation⁷ facilities to put tens of thousands of close contacts.

Nearby, Hong Kong serves as a warning of the cost of failure. The city is still logging more than 26,000 new cases a day and is suffering the world's highest COVID-19 fatality⁸ rate.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

4 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

5 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

6 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

7 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

8 fatality   

n.不幸，灾祸，天命

参考例句：

• She struggle against fatality in vain.她徒然奋斗反抗宿命。
• He began to have a growing sense of fatality.他开始有一种越来越强烈的宿命感。