Medical staff conduct nucleic acid tests in a community in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province on December 21, 2021. Photo: VCG

The virus strain that caused resent COVID-19 cases in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is highly homologous with the one identified in an imported case from Pakistan on December 4, local officials announced at a press conference on Tuesday. 

Liu Feng, dean of the Shaanxi Provincial Disease Control and Prevention Center, said on Tuesday that they conducted gene sequencing on samples of 36 local cases, and found that the virus causing these infections is highly similar to the imported case detected on December 4 on flight PK854 from Pakistan. 

According to Liu, Shaanxi Province reported 43 new COVID-19 cases on Monday with 42 in Xi'an and one in Xianyang, taking the total of cases on the latest flareup since December 9 to 96, of which 91 are in Xi'an.

The outbreak that started in Xi'an, has affected Xianyang and Yan'an in Shaanxi, Dongguan in South China's Guangdong Province and Beijing, Liu said.

Community transmission has occurred in Xi'an and the epidemic has entered a peak on cases, Liu said.  

Xi'an has rolled out COVID-19 prevention measures on public transportation since Sunday urging residents not to leave the city if not necessary and conducting city-wide nucleic acid testing. 

As of Tuesday, the province has conducted more than 15 million nucleic acid tests, according to Liu.