The Chinese city of Zhengzhou (center) on Wednesday began screening its 13 million inhabitants after a few cases of Covid, the confined metropolis of Xi’an announcing for its part the “control” of a recent source of infection.
China has largely eradicated the disease on its soil since the spring of 2020, thanks to draconian measures: very extensive screening, tracing of movements via mobile applications or even confinement of entire neighborhoods in the event of an outbreak of infection.
These measures have not prevented the emergence of small outbreaks of Covid. If they remain extremely limited compared to many other countries, they worry the authorities in the run-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics (February 4-20).
Because the number of new patients has reached in recent weeks levels not seen since March 2020, oscillating between a hundred and more than 200.
But a ebb seems to have started, the Ministry of Health announcing Wednesday only 91 new cases.
In central Henan province, the authorities of Zhengzhou provincial capital announced on Wednesday the start of screening for all of the city’s 13 million inhabitants.
The city, railway and road junction, had reported in recent days two patients and nine asymptomatic cases.
Local authorities have imposed confinement on eight living quarters, or several tens of thousands of people.
On Monday evening, the locality of Yuzhou, another city in Henan, announced to its 1.2 million inhabitants that they had to stay at home after the discovery of three asymptomatic cases.
The caution of these two cities is motivated by their proximity to the metropolis of Xi’an (north), in the neighboring province of Shaanxi, where a focus of infection on an unprecedented scale since 2020 has been declared in recent weeks.
The authorities ordered several screenings of the 13 million inhabitants and forced them to stay at home.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health reported only 35 new patients in the city. This is the lowest level since mid-December.
“Although the number of cases has been high for several days, the upward trend in the spread of Covid is under control” at the level of residential areas, said Ma Guanghui, deputy director of the provincial health commission.
On social networks, Internet users from Xi’an, a city known worldwide for its army buried in terracotta, however complained of lack of food, according to them due to a chaotic organization.