Residents are transported to centralized quarantine hotels in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province on December 30, 2021. Photo: VCG

Northwest China's Shaanxi Province reported zero daily COVID19 cases on Tuesday for the first time in 40 days since the epidemic resurgence on December 9, 2021. 

This round of the epidemic in Shaanxi was the largest domestically-transmitted epidemic since the Wuhan outbreak, with the largest number of cases and the largest scale for a megacity. 

In 40 days, the province registered 2,077 confirmed domestically transmitted cases in total, among which, 2,050 were reported in the capital city of Xi'an, 13 in Xianyang, 13 in Yan'an and one in Weinan, according to the Shaanxi provincial health commission on Wednesday. 

The high-risk and medium-risk regions in Xi'an have reduced to one and six respectively since Tuesday. 

Before Xi'an reported no cases on Tuesday, the city reported single digit daily cases for seven days. 

Online, residents of the city expressed happiness upon the news. "As a Xi'an local, I'm thankful to all the medical staff, governmental officials and volunteers who made contributions to the epidemic prevention work and those who donated to Xi'an. It is your joint efforts that have made Xi'an a safe place again," a local wrote online. 

Topics related to the news trended on Chinese social media on Wednesday morning. The posts with the hashtag "Xi'an reported zero cases" garnered over 40 million views. 

Many are yearning for the city to entirely lift restrictions and look forward to returning home safely in the Spring Festival for family reunion. 

The risk of a large-scale epidemic resurgence has been basically controlled, said Li Qun, an expert from the Shaanxi epidemiological expert team affiliated with the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council.

Xi'an, once in the early stage of this round resurgence, topped China's news headline for poor city governance and handling of the epidemic. 

Global Times