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Beijing has ordered roads, buildings and open spaces to be disinfected in the Chinese city of Xian as it upgraded lockdown restrictions to their 'strictest level' today.
Xian's case load - 150 on Sunday versus 155 a day earlier - remains tiny compared with many clusters overseas, but Beijing has moved rapidly to impose strict curbs, ordering all residents to stay at home for all but essential travel last Thursday.
The city's 13 million residents were given just a few hours' notice on Sunday afternoon that a 'full-scale' deep clean would start at 6pm with pictures showing trucks cannoning a fog of disinfectant as they toured the streets, while workers in full PPE sprayed chemicals on buildings and in subway stations.
Restrictions were toughened on Monday as Communist officials imposed a driving ban with the threat of 10 days in jail for anyone caught behind the wheel.
Although no cases of the new Omicron variant have yet been detected in Xian, the Communist Party remain deeply anxious that any Covid outbreak could threaten the Winter Olympics that Beijing hosts in February.
These fears are compounded by studies from Hong Kong University which show that China's Sinovac vaccine offers little protection against the new variant, even with a booster jab.
The latest outbreak has led to 635 local confirmed cases in Xian during the December 9 to 26 period, with no Omicron variant infections yet reported.
Across mainland China, a total of 162 domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections with confirmed symptoms were reported for Sunday, up from 158 a day earlier, according to official data on Monday. No deaths were reported for Sunday.
The new case number marks the highest count of local symptomatic infections since the daily bulletin provided by the National Health Commission started to classify asymptomatic carriers separately from end-March, 2020.
Mainland China had 101,277 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic as of end December 26, including domestically transmitted ones as well as those found among international travellers. The death toll remained at 4,636.
China remains wedded to its 'zero Covid' strategy, using sealed borders and long quarantines to try and shut out new variants, with snap lockdowns, mass testing and contact-tracing to wipe out local outbreaks.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...picentre-Xian-despite-draconian-lockdown.html
Xian's case load - 150 on Sunday versus 155 a day earlier - remains tiny compared with many clusters overseas, but Beijing has moved rapidly to impose strict curbs, ordering all residents to stay at home for all but essential travel last Thursday.
The city's 13 million residents were given just a few hours' notice on Sunday afternoon that a 'full-scale' deep clean would start at 6pm with pictures showing trucks cannoning a fog of disinfectant as they toured the streets, while workers in full PPE sprayed chemicals on buildings and in subway stations.
Restrictions were toughened on Monday as Communist officials imposed a driving ban with the threat of 10 days in jail for anyone caught behind the wheel.
Although no cases of the new Omicron variant have yet been detected in Xian, the Communist Party remain deeply anxious that any Covid outbreak could threaten the Winter Olympics that Beijing hosts in February.
These fears are compounded by studies from Hong Kong University which show that China's Sinovac vaccine offers little protection against the new variant, even with a booster jab.
The latest outbreak has led to 635 local confirmed cases in Xian during the December 9 to 26 period, with no Omicron variant infections yet reported.
Across mainland China, a total of 162 domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections with confirmed symptoms were reported for Sunday, up from 158 a day earlier, according to official data on Monday. No deaths were reported for Sunday.
The new case number marks the highest count of local symptomatic infections since the daily bulletin provided by the National Health Commission started to classify asymptomatic carriers separately from end-March, 2020.
Mainland China had 101,277 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic as of end December 26, including domestically transmitted ones as well as those found among international travellers. The death toll remained at 4,636.
China remains wedded to its 'zero Covid' strategy, using sealed borders and long quarantines to try and shut out new variants, with snap lockdowns, mass testing and contact-tracing to wipe out local outbreaks.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...picentre-Xian-despite-draconian-lockdown.html
