China expands lockdowns as COVID-19 cases climb | CNA:
December 28, 2021 - "Hundreds of thousands more people were ordered to stay home in northern China on Tuesday (Dec 28) as the country battled its worst COVID-19 surge in 21 months and locked-down residents took to social media to complain about food shortages.
"China, where the virus emerged two years ago, has followed a 'zero-COVID-19' strategy of tight border restrictions, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns as Beijing prepares to welcome thousands of overseas visitors to February's Winter Olympics. But authorities have faced a resurgent virus in recent weeks, reporting 209 infections on Tuesday, the highest single-day tally since March last year, when the pandemic raged through the central city of Wuhan.
"The surge, while low in comparison to rampant cases in Europe and the United States, has prompted authorities to impose what they have called the 'strictest' possible curbs in the northern city of Xi'an, whose 13 million residents are entering a sixth day of home confinement. As well as having undergone several rounds of testing, households are limited to sending out one person every three days to buy groceries....
"The Xi'an lockdown is the most sweeping in China since the similarly-sized Wuhan was sealed off. More than 800 coronavirus cases have been recorded in Xi'an since Dec 9, with the youngest case a 38-day-old infant, the state-run Global Times newspaper reported Tuesday."
Read more: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-covid-19-lockdown-cases-climb-xian-food-shortage-2404106
China punishes dozens of Xi'an officials as city grapples with COVID-19 lockdown | CNA
December 24, 2021 "Dozens of officials have been punished over a virus outbreak in the locked-down city of Xi'an, China's disciplinary body said on Friday (Dec 24) - the latest state reprimands under Beijing's strict zero-COVID-19 approach. China, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, is on high alert for new infections as it prepares to hold the Winter Olympics in February in the capital Beijing....
"The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on Friday that 26 Communist Party officials had been punished for 'insufficient rigour in preventing and controlling the outbreak'. Chinese officials who are deemed to have failed at controlling the virus in their region are regularly sacked or reprimanded.... A party secretary in Inner Mongolia was sacked after his area was hit by a cluster of cases in October, while the head of Zhengzhou city's health commission was sacked in August after cases this summer."
Read more: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-xi-covid19-outbreak-punish-officials-2400011
China's Xi'an marks first week of lockdown as COVID-19 cases persist | CNA:
December 29, 2021 - "A lockdown of 13 million people in the Chinese city of Xi'an entered its seventh day on Wednesday (Dec 29), with many unable to leave their homes and virtually dependent on deliveries of necessities as new COVID-19 infections persisted. Xi'an reported 151 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms for Tuesday, or nearly all of the 152 cases nationwide, bringing the total number of local Xi'an cases to nearly 1,000 during the Dec 9 to 28 period. No cases of the Omicron variant have been announced in the city....
"Since Monday, the Xi'an government has stopped granting permission to people seeking to leave their homes to buy essentials, as epidemic containment measures rose a notch. It said in-person shopping could be resumed for people in less risky areas once mass testing returned negative results, but it did not say exactly when stay-at-home order would be lifted.... Several district-level governments in Xi'an have started arranging grocery deliveries to residents, the city government said."
Read more: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/chinas-xian-marks-first-week-lockdown-covid-19-cases-persist-2405266
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