Xian Residents Difficulty Accessing Hospital Services During COVID-19 Restrictions, Chinese Vice Premier Sad And Shame

JAKARTA - China reported fewer COVID cases on Friday, as several cities had restricted movement, while a top official warned hospitals not to turn away patients, after a woman's miscarriage during a lockdown in Xian City sparked outrage.

China reported 116 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed clinical symptoms for Thursday, mostly in Xian and Henan provinces, down from 132 a day earlier, official data showed on Friday.

Xian, a city of 13 million in northwest China, is entering its 16th day of lockdown, although officials say the outbreak there has been brought under control. Xian is in Shaanxi Province which borders Henan Province.

"The risk of a large-scale escalation from the (Xian) outbreak has been largely contained," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Li Qun, a disease control and prevention official, as saying in a statement.

During Xian's lockdown, residents complained about limited access to food and medical care. The story of a pregnant woman who lost her unborn baby, after waiting outside a local hospital for two hours sparked outrage on Chinese social media, leading to the sentencing of city officials.

China's Deputy Premier Sun Chunlan said he was saddened and very embarrassed about people's difficulties in getting hospital services in Xian, the Xinhua news agency said.

"Medical institutions should not simply refuse patients for any reason during COVID control," Sun was quoted as saying.

On Friday, the city government said people without evidence of a negative test result within 48 hours should not be barred from leaving their residential complex to go to hospital, canceling an earlier requirement.

Outbreaks in China remain small compared to many abroad, and a highly contagious variant of Omicron has not been declared among local infections in Henan or Xian, but local authorities have maintained high vigilance.

To note, China's policy of blocking individual clusters from spreading further has taken on extra urgency ahead of the Winter Olympics, which will be staged in Beijing and Hebei from February 4, and with the Lunar New Year holiday season starting in less time. of two weeks.

There were no new deaths on Thursday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636. Mainland China had 103,295 confirmed symptomatic cases as of Jan. 6, including local and imported ones.