China says Xi’an COVID-19 outbreak controlled, but other cities face restrictions

BEIJING: COVID-19 cases in the locked-down Chinese city of Xi’an fell to their lowest level in weeks on Wednesday (Jan 5), as officials said that an outbreak there had been largely “brought under control” after two weeks of a stay-at-home order.

But other urban hubs where clusters have been detected face restrictions including a new partial lockdown in the city of Zhengzhou.

China has stuck to a rigid approach of stamping out COVID-19 cases when they appear with tight border restrictions and targeted lockdowns since the virus first emerged in the country in late 2019.

But the strategy has come under pressure with a series of recent local outbreaks in different parts of the country, and with less than a month to go until the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Although the reported cases in China are very low compared with elsewhere in the world, infections in recent weeks have reached a high not seen in the country since March 2020.

But they showed signs of easing on Wednesday with 91 cases reported – including 35 more in Xi’an, the historic city’s lowest tally since mid-December.

Provincial health officials said that they were finally getting the spread of the virus under control and have curbed the rapid rise in cases after a strict lockdown and rounds of mass testing for the city’s 13 million inhabitants.

“Although the case number has been high for many days, the rapid rise in COVID spread at community level has been brought under control compared with the early stages of the outbreak,” said Ma Guanghui, deputy director of the Shaanxi health commission at a press conference.

“The overall trend of the epidemic is showing a downward trend.”

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