China's Xi'an city faces crisis; widest outbreak despite stringent lockdown

The Chinese city of Xi’an has reached a “Live-or-Die” situation about the recent surge in Omicron cases. On Thursday, the capital of the Shaanxi Province reported 155 new transmitted coronavirus cases, marking a new high. Despite a stringent lockdown that has put the city of13 million to a halt, cases in the country have been witnessing a rapid surge. 

"Xian has reached a live-or-die stage in its fight against the virus," said Zhang Fenghua, a city government official, at a news conference on Wednesday.

According to Xi'an health officials, the city reported 155 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms such as fever on Wednesday. The caseload was four more than that reported a day earlier. This pushed the overall caseload of the city to 1,100 since the current flare-up began on December 9. 

What are the restrictions in Xi'an?

Authorities have banned Xi'an residents from leaving the city without the permission of employers or local authorities. In case, any household requires groceries, then they are obliged to send only one member to the store. Other family members are not allowed to leave home unless they have essential jobs or urgent matters approved by employers or communities.  The said intensity of lockdown comes after China pushed nearly 11 million people into their homes for a couple of months in Wuhan, when COVID was first detected in the city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Nevertheless, several videos and images surfaced on social media showing people panic-buying groceries and household items. It is to be noted that Xi'an on Wednesday. As per CNBC, the city is also dealing with undisclosed cases of a high mortality disease transmitted by rodents. On the other hand, a larger COVID outbreak in southeastern China has begun to subside.

Last week, officials in the Chinese city were facing punishment for “not doing a good job” in curbing the spread of Coronavirus, as per a report by The Guardian. the Central Commission from Discipline Inspection, said 26 officials in Xi’an were held accountable for the recent outbreak. In a statement, it said that all the individuals failed to ‘prevent and control COVID’ but stopped short of revealing what punishments would be meted out to them. 

(Image: AP)