A medical worker works at a nucleic acid testing lab in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province on December 26, 2021. Photo: VCG

 





The historic city Xi'an, home to a population of 13 million people in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, started a new round of nucleic acid testing at 12 am on Monday and tightened its policy of lockdown by requiring all its residents to stay at home to guarantee the accuracy of the test results.

In a news conference on Monday afternoon, Shaanxi government said that newly reported cases may continue to emerge in the following days with possible sporadic flare-ups.

The complete genome sequencing of 137 locally transmitted cases shows that the virus strain is highly similar to with the one identified in an imported case from Pakistan on December 4, local officials added.

Xi'an has been locking down its communities since Thursday, but each family could send one person outside once every two days to purchase daily necessities during the past days.

Local government said that it would tighten controls to minimize the flow and movement of local people before the test is finished, and adjust the prevention measures depending on the testing results.

Starting from 12 am on Monday, more than 6.4 million samples have been taken in the new round of testing as of 4 pm on Monday.

Chen Zhijun, deputy director of Xi'an Municipality Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the media on Sunday evening that the requirement to stay indoors was raised given that quite a few silent carriers haven't been detected yet. 

Local residents will likely get infected if they come in contact with each other in short distance without proper prevention measures, Chen said.

Xi'an reported 150 locally transmitted confirmed cases on Sunday, according to the city's health commission. Among a total of 635 local cases reported as of Sunday, the youngest patient is only six months old.

Global Times