Team News Riveting
The fresh wave of Corona is haunting China as Beijing on Wednesday ordered the lockdown of as many as 13 million people in neighbourhoods and workplaces in the northern city of Xi’an following a spike in cases.
The historic Chinese city of Xi’an tightened travel controls and locked down communities on Wednesday to combat a growing COVID-19 outbreak after the detection of more than 140 local cases within two weeks sparked great concerns of wider transmission. The decision resulted in panic buying just weeks before the country hosts the Winter Olympic Games.
As the city is about to enter a lockdown from midnight on Thursday, people have rushed to supermarkets to buy daily supplies as all households may only send one person outside once every two days to purchase necessities after the lockdown, except for emergencies, the lockdown order said.
The city in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province also shut down 3,574 schools and organized online classes. Large indoor recreation venues were suspended and company employees were advised to work from home.
These strict measures came after a city-wide nucleic acid testing program starting from Sunday, which detected 42 cases on Monday and 52 cases on Tuesday. So far, the outbreak has affected five other cities – Xianyang and Yan’an in Shaanxi, Zhoukou in Central China’s Henan Province, Dongguan in South China’s Guangdong Province, and Beijing.
The second round of city-wide nucleic acid testing in Xi’an detected 127 positive cases, local authority announced on Wednesday night.
