Xian City Enters Day 5 Of Lockdown, Local Cases Of COVID-19 In China Soar

Illustration of a lonely corner of Xian City in China. (Wikimedia Commons /monicker)

JAKARTA - China's locally symptomatic coronavirus cases are climbing again, with most of the new infections reported in the northwestern city of Xian as it enters its fifth day of lockdown.

Xian's caseload, 150 locally symptomatic cases as of Sunday compared to 155 a day earlier, remains small compared to many overseas clusters, but has imposed strict restrictions on travel within and outside the city, underpinning Beijing's efforts to contain the turmoil as soon as possible.

The latest outbreak has led to 635 locally confirmed cases in Xian, a city of 13 million people, during the December 9-26 period, with no reported infections of the Omicron variant, citing Reuters December 27.

Across mainland China, a total of 162 domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections with confirmed symptoms were reported on Sunday, up from 158 the day before, according to official data on Monday. No deaths were reported on Sunday.

The number of new cases marks the highest number of locally symptomatic infections since a daily bulletin provided by the National Health Commission, began classifying asymptomatic carriers separately from late March 2020.

Meanwhile, Mainland China has 101,277 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic at the end of December 26, including those transmitted within the country as well as those found among international travelers. The death toll remains at 4,636.

In Xian City, a two-hour flight southwest of Beijing, residents cannot leave the city without approval from employers or local authorities, and households can only send one person to shop for necessities every two days.

Other family members should not leave the house unless they have important work or urgent matters to complete, approved by the employer or the community.

Xian City itself has launched a city-wide disinfection campaign, with staff spraying pathogen-killing solutions on road and building surfaces. Residents are advised not to touch the plants after disinfection.

It also started a new round of mass testing on Monday, urging residents to stay home unless their samples were taken.

To note, Xianyang City and Weinan City, also in Shaanxi Province where Xian is based, each reported one case of local symptoms on Sunday. In addition, local infections were also found in the Guangxi region and Zhejiang, Guangdong and Sichuan provinces.