Draconian tactics not seen since the dark days of the height of the Covid-19 pandemic are being deployed in China as a disease carried by mosquitoes threatens to run rampant. Drones, nets and scores of workers carrying machines blasting out plumes of insecticide are being mobilised in the nation's southern Guangdong province, which has since more than 7,000 cases of the potentially deadly Chikungunya virus. There have also been reports of the disease spreading to the neighboroughing regions of Hunan and Yunnan.

The bug, carried by infected female Aedes mosquitoes, causes muscle pain, nausea, fatigue and a rash. Some patients can also experience arthritis-like symptoms for months after they are bitten. Like Covid-19, Chikungunya can be especially severe, and even fatal, for the elderly and those with a weakened immune system.

Guangdong province is home to some nine millon people and borders the former British territory of Hong Kong, which is still a popular tourist destination and change-over hub for airlines. Restrictions now being imposed in the region to combat this new virus bring back painful memories for some residents, with pharmacies ordered to record names of people collecting medicine and hospitals opening new 'quarantine' wards.

Liu, a resident of the city Tengchong, in Yunnan province, said the Chinese government was taking the outbreak "extremely seriously". He told the Financial Times: “Before this virus, I was so worried about mosquito bites every day, now . . . there’s not a single mosquito.”

Pest control worker Wu is one of dozens of people employed to pump insecticide fumes into bushes and abandoned dwellings around the city. He and his team work twice daily spreading chemical death for their insect foes. "It would be best to eliminate them all," he said.

Fumigation is one tactic being deployed by the authorities, but other weapons against the mosquitoes are being deployed, including using drones to track breeding sites. Natural predators like carp and the larvae of a giant mosquito which eats the species carrying the disease are also being used.

Although Chikungunya cannot be spread directly by human to human contact, if a mosquito bites an infected person then the insect can spread it to anyone else they bite.

Guangdong provincial governor Wang Weizhong said all citizens should install mosquito guaze and apply bug repellent as part of "patriotic health campaign.

During a meeting on the crisis, he said: “All places and departments in the province must . . . forcefully win the battle of preventing and controlling the pandemic, the battle of blocking it and the battle of annihilating it."

Chinese state television has shown workers spraying insecticide around city streets, residential areas, construction sites and other areas where people may come into contact with mosquitoes. Workers sprayed some places before entering office buildings.

Unusually heavy rains and high temperatures have worsened the crisis in China, and authorities are using drones to try to find standing water, where mosquitoes lay eggs.

Authorities also have threatened to fine people who don’t empty water from outdoor receptacles. Residents can be subject to fines of up to 10,000 yuan (£1,000) and have their electricity cut off.