The Chinese city of Xi'an remains under lockdown for a fifth day today, while the authorities announced that yesterday 150 new cases of local transmission were recorded. Covid-19 with symptoms, with their number slightly decreasing from the previous day.
The number of infections in Xi'an, home to 13 million people, remains very small compared to large outbreaks abroad, but authorities have imposed severe restrictions on local travel and exit from the city as part of Beijing's immediate policy. reduction of flares.
Authorities have not yet announced any cases of the Omicron variant in Xi'an, where 635 cases of SARS-CoV-2 were confirmed between December 9th and 26th. The day before yesterday, Saturday, the city recorded 155 cases.
Nationwide, China has identified only a few Omicron infections among travelers from abroad and in southern China.
In Xi'an, residents can not leave the city without the approval of their employers or local authorities. From the 23rd of December, only one member from each household can go to buy the essentials every two days. Other family members can not leave their home unless their work is deemed necessary or there are exceptional reasons and they have the approval of their employers or local authorities.
Today, Xi'an authorities called on residents to stay in their homes unless they have to deliver a sample as part of a new round of mass diagnostic tests being conducted in the city.
Xi'an has also launched a disinfection campaign, with city officials spraying special solutions on streets and buildings and urging residents not to touch plants or walls.
Dongyan Jin, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, said that mass disinfection in the open and outdoors does not seem necessary given the low risk of contamination of residents from outside or through the air, as very few people move outside. "It's like shooting mosquitoes with a cannon," he said, adding, however, that it was necessary to disinfect surfaces inside buildings, especially in areas where people infected with the virus had been found.
Source: RES-EAP