fbpx

Type to search

China’s Xi’an Marks First Week of Lockdown as Covid-19 Cases Persist

Xi’an reported 151 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms for Tuesday, bringing total number of local cases to 1,000 during December 9-28


Xian
People practise social distancing as they line up at a nucleic acid testing site during a mass testing following the coronavirus outbreak in Xian, Shaanxi province. File photo from Dec 21, 2021 by CNSphoto/ Reuters.

 

A lockdown of 13 million people in the Chinese city of Xi’an entered its seventh day on Wednesday, with many unable to leave their homes and virtually dependent on deliveries of necessities as new Covid-19 infections persisted.

Xi’an reported 151 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms for Tuesday, or nearly all of the 152 cases nationwide, bringing the total number of local Xi’an cases to nearly 1,000 during the December 9-28 period. No cases of the Omicron variant have been announced in the city.

While the Xi’an outbreak is small compared with outbreaks in many other places around the world, officials imposed tough curbs on travel within and leaving the city from December 23, in line with Beijing’s drive to immediately contain outbreaks as they appear.

Since Monday, the Xi’an government has stopped granting permission to people seeking to leave their homes to buy essentials, as epidemic containment measures rose a notch.

It said in-person shopping could be resumed for people in less risky areas once mass testing returned negative results, but it did not say exactly when stay-at-home order would be lifted.

That stirred complaints on social media from some residents about about the uncertain access of fresh produce.

Several district-level governments in Xi’an have started arranging grocery deliveries to residents, the city government said.

Authorities also started a new round of city-wide testing on Wednesday.

There were no new Covid-19 deaths in mainland China for Tuesday, leaving the death toll at 4,636.

China reported 101,683 confirmed symptomatic cases as of Tuesday, including both domestic cases and infections brought in from abroad.

 

  • Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard

 

 

ALSO READ:

 

 

China Covid-19 Cases Edge Higher as Lockdown Tightens in Xi’an

 

China Talks Up ‘Green’ Olympics But Prepares to Fight Smog

 

China’s Xi’an Locks Down 13m Residents, Warriors Over Covid

 

 

 

 

Tags:

Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd papers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling through SE Asia in the late 90s. He was a senior editor at The Nation for 17+ years and has a family in Bangkok.