- On Tuesday, the central Chinese city of Xi’an recorded 52 new Covid-19 cases.
- Xi’an, an ancient city known internationally as the home of the 2,000-year-old Terracotta warriors sculptures, detected its first case connected to the latest outbreak at a quarantined hotel on December 9.
- The virus is believed to have then spread into the community via an infected hotel worker.
- Authorities moved swiftly, suspending schools and conducting mass testing for the entire city.
- Since December 9, the city has recorded a total of 206 cases.
Xi’an, a city in central China, reported 52 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. Authorities had implemented severe lockdown measures on the city’s estimated 13 million residents by Wednesday.
The restrictions, which ban individuals from leaving their homes, come as the country prepares for the Lunar New Year travel boom, which will be followed by the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will begin on February 4 in the capital Beijing as reported by CNN.
Government quarantine
Xi’an, an ancient city known internationally as the home of the 2,000-year-old Terracotta warriors sculptures, detected its first case connected to the latest outbreak at a quarantined hotel on December 9.
The virus is believed to have then spread into the community via an infected hotel worker.
So far, there have been no reported cases of the Omicron variant in Xi’an.
Since December 9, the city has recorded a total of 206 cases.
By noon on Wednesday, more than 30,000 people who were believed to have come into contact with a confirmed case were placed in a government quarantine, according to state-run newspaper China Daily.
That same day, the city imposed a strict lockdown until further notice for all residents.
Restricted area
Xi’an has been labelled a “restricted area,” China’s second-highest level of lockdown, which means residents are not permitted to leave their houses except in extreme circumstances such as a medical emergency. Every two days, each home is only permitted to send one designated person out to buy groceries.
Families flocked to supermarkets to stock up on goods when the new limits were announced, according to the state-run newspaper the Global Times, before the lockdown went into force at midnight.
Delta outbreak
Schools, public facilities and transport systems are also closed except for essential service providers like hospitals and supermarkets, according to the local government’s announcement.
Xi’an is one level away from the highest lockdown category of “sealed area,” in which residents are completely banned from leaving their homes, and groceries are delivered to their door.
Though previous outbreaks have seen similar restrictions, they are typically only applied to specific areas where infections are most prevalent — not an entire city.
The emergence of yet another outbreak has raised questions over the long-term viability of China’s ambitious “zero-Covid” policy, which aims to eliminate the virus completely within the country’s borders.
The outbreak in Xi’an follows a Delta-driven outbreak in the summer; a September outbreak in Fujian province; an October outbreak that spread to more than half the country; then several clusters in Inner Mongolia in November, which have spread to Zhejiang province in recent weeks.
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Source: CNN
