13 Million Residents Experience Lockdown Due To COVID-19 Outbreak, China Sentenced 26 Xian City Officials

Ilustrasi tes COVID-19 massal di China. (Wikimedia Commons/Dancing Moon Scholar)

JAKARTA - Dozens of officials have been punished over the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Xian City that led to a lockdown, China's disciplinary body said on Friday, the state's latest rebuke under Beijing's strict zero-COVID-19 approach.

China, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, is particularly wary of new infections as it prepares to hold the Winter Olympics in February in the capital Beijing.

The world's most populous nation has reduced cases to a minimum, thanks to a strategy of strict border restrictions without COVID-19, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns.

However, cases have spiked in recent weeks, with Xian, home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors, telling 13 million residents to stay home from Thursday, closing businesses and launching several rounds of mass testing.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on Friday 26 Communist Party officials had been convicted of "not being thorough enough in preventing and controlling the outbreak," citing CNA from AFP Dec. 24.

The statement said inspections had revealed there was a weak approach to testing and an uncoordinated response hampering contact tracing in Xian.

Illustration of a corner of Xian City, China. (Wikimedia Commons/chensiyuan)

Authorities will suppress "bureaucratic problems in disease control work such as shirking responsibilities, not taking action, wasting money and handling things in a negative way", said a party discipline official.

Meanwhile, Xian reported another 49 cases on Friday, bringing the total outbreak to more than 250 in recent weeks.

The cases from Xian have so far spread to five other cities including Beijing, according to state media, stoking concerns about how quickly the virus could spread geographically across the vast country.

Under the lockdown, from Thursday all households in Xian were only allowed to send one member outside every two days to buy necessities.

Residents wishing to leave the city must first apply for approval, while key attractions including the museum housing the Terracotta Army, the tomb of China's first emperor, have been closed until further notice.

For information, Chinese officials deemed to have failed to control the virus on their territory are regularly fired or reprimanded by the central government.

A party secretary in Inner Mongolia was fired after his area was hit by a cluster of cases in October. The head of the Zhengzhou City health commission was sacked in August after this summer's case.