| Translate This News In |
|---|
China ordered the lockdown of up to 13 million people in neighbourhoods and businesses after a spike in coronavirus cases in the northern city of Xi’an, triggering panic buying just weeks before the country hosts the Winter Olympic Games.
According to state media, municipal officials instructed all residents to stay at home unless they had a pressing cause to go, and all public transportation to and from the city was suspended unless in exceptional circumstances.
According to the decree, one individual from each family will be allowed out every two days to purchase domestic supplies. It went into force at midnight on Wednesday, with no indication of when it will be lifted.
The administration announced that new supplies would be delivered on Thursday, prompting panic purchases of groceries and home items on social media.
Xi’an reported another 63 locally transmitted cases in the preceding 24 hours on Thursday, bringing the city’s total to at least 211 in the previous week. Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province, is known for its imperial monuments and as a major industrial city.
China has also been coping with a large epidemic in many cities in the eastern province of Zhejiang, near Shanghai, though isolation measures have been more focused there.
China has implemented stringent pandemic control measures in order to reduce new transmissions to zero, which has resulted in frequent lockdowns, ubiquitous masking, and mass testing. While the programme has not been totally successful, causing major disruptions in travel and trade, Beijing believes it has helped to curb the virus’s spread.
These efforts have been increased up in recent days in preparation for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, which begin on February 4th.
The Xi’an restrictions are among the most severe since China placed a stringent lockdown on more than 11 million people in and around Wuhan, China’s major metropolis, in 2020, after the coronavirus was discovered there in late 2019.
A total of 100,644 cases of COVID-19 in China have resulted in 4,636 deaths.
