Chinese authorities have issued an imprisonment order for 13 million residents in Xi’an since Thursday due to renewed COVID-19 cases in the central provincial capital of Shanxi.
“With the exception of medical professionals, everyone else [cidadãos] they should stay at home unless there is a compelling reason, ”the local health commission said in a statement quoted by international news agencies.
The commission announced the closure of schools and the suspension of all activities, asking residents to work from home.
Only one person per family is allowed. purchases “every two days” and all “Minor” establishments ordered to closeexcept supermarkets, convenience stores and medical facilities.
Residents cannot leave Xi’an unless absolutely necessary and must first obtain certificates approved by local authorities upon presentation of a negative test.
According to the specialized website VariFlight, more than 85% of flights at Xi’an airport have already been canceled.
The decision, which affects more people than the population of Portugal, was made just over a month before the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
China’s National Health Commission announced on Wednesday that 57 new cases The diagnosis was made on Tuesday across the country, 53 is Xi’an, the former capital of the empire, famous for its “terracotta army” discovered in 1974.
Since the start of this latest COVID-19 outbreak on December 9, Shaanxi Province has reported 149 positive local cases, 143 of which are in Xi’an.
So far, China has not confirmed a single case of local transmission of the omicron variant, but reports that it has found imported cases from arriving foreign travelers while they were in quarantine.
China has adopted a zero-tolerance strategy for the coronavirus, which includes strict entry controls with up to three weeks of quarantine and multiple tests of various types, as well as mass testing campaigns and random confinement in areas where the outbreak has been detected.
There are currently 1,765 active cases in the country, of which seven remain in serious condition, as well as 501 asymptomatic cases, according to a report released today by Chinese health authorities.
According to official figures, since the beginning of the pandemic in China, 100,544 people have been infected, of which 4,636 have died.
The virus that causes COVID-19, named SARS-CoV-2, was first detected in Wuang, a city in central China, at the end of 2019.
Since then, respiratory diseases have killed more than 5.3 million people worldwide.
