Confined, the Chinese city of Xi’an will be completely disinfected, authorities say

Before the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, the Chinese authorities are redoubling their vigilance to avoid any major outbreak of Covid-19. And that goes through disinfection “total” from the Chinese city of Xi’an, announced the municipality, Sunday, December 26. This decision is part of a tightening of restrictions in this city located about 900 km from the Olympic venues and where the 13 million inhabitants have already been confined since Thursday, after the appearance of cases of Covid-19.

This disinfection was to begin Sunday evening.

In a country which has applied since last year a “zero Covid” strategy, which consists of doing everything to limit the occurrence of new cases as much as possible, the metropolis reported on Sunday 155 new patients, bringing the total to nearly 500 over the past few weeks. “In the coming days, a number of cases are still at risk of being detected”Xi’an official He Wenquan told reporters after Xi’an residents have already been tested several times, authorities said. Some 29,000 people have been placed in solitary confinement in specific hotels, the official also announced.

Now, each household in Xi’an can only send one of its members once every three days to buy basic necessities. The previous authorization was for two days. Finally, all companies “non-essential”, with the exception of supermarkets, convenience stores and medical establishments, have been ordered to close.

China on Sunday reported 206 new Covid-19 infections on its soil, the highest number of infections on a day since March 2020. Life had returned to normal since spring 2020 and the country has not officially recorded that two deaths in over a year.