China has postponed the Beijing marathon over the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The country has scaled 133 cases in 11 provinces related amid a Delta variant surge.

The country's health authorities are taking the latest figures seriously as the surge is considered to be one of the largest outbreaks of the infection this year.

The organisers of the Beijing marathon said in a statement that the run would be postponed until further notice "in order to prevent the risk of the epidemic spreading (and) effectively protect the health and safety of the majority of runners, staff and residents."

Nearly 30,000 people were expected to participate in the event slated for October 31. 

One of China's biggest local sporting events, the race begins at Tiananmen Square and ends in Celebration Square in Beijing's Olympic Park. It has been organised annually since 1981.

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The authorities have initiated mass testing campaigns across cities and induced lockdowns to check the spread of the virus. The surge is believed to have happened because of domestic travel and tourism.

The new cases have punched holes in the country's efforts to maintain zero-tolerance regarding the virus. While other parts of the world are gradually beginning to live with the virus, Beijing insists on keeping the infection to negligible levels for enforcing quarantines, mass vaccination and stringent lockdowns.

The rise in the cases has also put a question mark on the organisation of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Last week, the Wuhan Marathon was postponed for the same reasons. The organisers were expecting nearly 26,000 runners for the half marathon and the full marathon. Incidentally, Wuhan was the city where the deadly virus had first originated almost two years back towards the end of 2019, and later spread across the world.

Last week, the spread of the virus among the employees of Expace Technology, a State-backed company, which was readying a space rocket to deploy satellites, led to the closure of the space programme. The company put up its employees in hotels to ensure that they do not spread the infection.