A Chinese city of 13 million is on strict lockdown with residents being told to stay at home with windows closed as the country’s daily reported domestic Covid-19 cases hit highs last seen in early 2020.
According to NBC News, The central city of Xi’an, which is some 600 miles southwest of Beijing, remained under lockdown for a fifth day Monday as authorities reported 150 new local symptomatic coronavirus cases and launched a new round of mass testing.
Residents have been largely barred from leaving Xi’an and told to stay at home except to get tested for Covid — strengthening the already strict restrictions imposed last week. Households are allowed to send one member shopping every two days.
Workers have also been spraying pathogen-killing solutions onto roads and buildings to disinfect the city, with residents being told to close their windows and avoid touching outdoor surfaces to prevent contact with the chemicals.
According to KTLA5, Though the latest outbreak is 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles) southwest of the Olympic host city of Beijing, any sign that the pandemic might be worsening in China will raise questions about whether and how it will manage to welcome thousands of athletes, officials, and journalists when the Games open in just weeks on Feb. 4.
On the one hand, there is a tremendous amount of national pride and investment riding on the Olympics and few would want a cancellation, postponement, or dramatic reimagining at this late stage. On the other, Chinese authorities have adopted draconian measures throughout the pandemic under their policy of seeking to stamp out every last case —
and it’s hard to see how welcoming so many people from abroad will square with that strategy. That “zero tolerance” policy, which has led to frequent lockdowns, universal masking, and mass testing, has not been entirely successful. It has resulted in massive disruptions to travel and trade, but Beijing credits it with largely containing the spread of the virus. Overall, China has reported 4,636 deaths and 100,644 cases of COVID-19.
