01-01-2022
A city in lock down - Xian's 13 million people told to stay at home
Xi'an, capital of China's Shaanxi Province with 13 million population, reported 175 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing to over 1,000 the total number of local cases as of Dec. 30. Health authorities in the city launched the fifth round of mass nucleic acid testing at noon on Monday in a bid to weed out as many infections as possible. The lockdown measures adopted by the authorities were sudden and strictly enforced, resulting in unpreparedness by some local residents, who had been told not to store up food supplies just days earlier. Authorities in Xi'an have upgraded epidemic control and prevention measures starting Monday, ordering all residents to stay indoors and refrain from gatherings except when taking nucleic acid tests.
As of Tuesday noon, more than 12.3 million people had been tested with the help of 5,077 sample collecting venues and more than 31,000 sample collectors.
To screen for more infections, health authorities in three districts of Xi'an will carry out all-inclusive nucleic acid testing once each day starting Tuesday.
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