“Except for health personnel, the rest must stay at home except for imperative reasons,” indicates the document, which announces the closure of schools and the cessation of all kinds of events, in addition to asking residents to work from home.
Residents are also required not to leave Xi’an if not strictly necessary, and those who want to leave the city must first obtain certificates approved by local authorities, in addition to submitting a negative nucleic acid test.
The EU seeks a coordinated response to face the advance of omicron
China’s National Health Commission reported Wednesday that of the 57 new local infections diagnosed across the country on Tuesday, 53 were located in Xi’an.
Since this latest outbreak began on December 9, Shaanxi province has detected a total of 149 local covid positives, 143 of them in Xi’an.
So far, the Asian country has not confirmed any contagion by local transmission of the omicron variant, but it has reported “imported” cases of travelers arriving from abroad while they were quarantining.
To date, China has developed a zero tolerance strategy against the coronavirus, which involves strict entry controls into the country with quarantines of up to three weeks and numerous tests of various types, as well as mass testing campaigns and selective confinements in the places where regrowth is detected.
According to the report issued today by the Chinese health authorities, there are currently 1,765 active infected throughout the country, of which seven remain in serious condition, in addition to 501 infected asymptomatic.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, official figures indicate that 100,544 people have been infected in China, of whom 94,143 have been cured and 4,636 died.