Staff roll out city-wide disinfection in epidemic-hit Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on December 26, 2021. Photo: VCG

The city-wide disinfection rolled out in epidemic-hit Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, which is part of government's measures to control the recent outbreak, triggered controversy online.

The latest outbreak in Xi'an has affected 21 cities in 15 provinces and regions, including Shaanxi, South China's Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as of Monday evening, media reported.

Videos and pictures of disinfection teams operating on the streets of Xi'an were widely circulated online after the anti-epidemic command of Xi'an government announced that the mass disinfection had started since Sunday afternoon.

Many netizens expressed gratitude and respect to the local government for taking the responsibility to disinfect the city, but some said disinfecting the entire city may lack scientific support and go against the anti-epidemic guidance by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which says disinfection should be confined to places where those with COVID-19 had visited.

Zhuang Shilihe, an expert based in Guangzhou, told the Global Times on Monday that COVID-19 is a respiratory infectious disease which transmits through human-to-human physical contact. The outdoor disinfection doesn't work on COVID-19, it can also cause damage to ecological environment. 

Prior to the city-wide disinfection, the anti-epidemic command warned the public to close their windows, remove clothes from clotheslines, and avoid touching outer surfaces of buildings and plants.

Videos showed teams in Xi'an disinfecting streets around the Drum Tower, a landmark of the city.

A Beijing-based immunologist who asked for anonymity said disinfecting outdoor facilities is hardly effective in an open environment and it's also money-consuming.

Disinfection should apply to certain areas with a higher possibility of virus existence, such as buttons of elevators, doorknobs, facilities of hospitals, places for quarantine, and cargo zones of airports, according to the operation standards stipulated by China's CDC, Zhuang noted. 

Some netizens and experts believe the city-wide disinfection is necessary. Since Xi'an's epidemiological studies are very ambiguous and people can contract the virus through touching contaminated surfaces, it makes disinfection of the environment important.

Since December 9 until 26, Xi'an has reported a total of 651 confirmed cases.

Xi'an was previously accused of having relatively poor city governance as the local implementation of the country's strategy of pursing a dynamic zero-case situation was plagued with problems, such as ambiguous epidemiological studies and a crashed health code system.