China reported its biggest daily increase in local Covid-19 cases in 21 months, as infections more than doubled in the northwestern city of Xian, the country’s latest coronavirus transmission hub.
The city of 13 million inhabitants, which entered its fourth day of lockdown, last Saturday (25) detected 155 cases of domestic transmission with confirmed symptoms, compared to 75 the day before, according to official data released this Sunday.
That brought the national daily count to 158, the highest since China managed to contain a national outbreak in early 2020.
Xian, with 485 local symptomatic cases reported for the period 9-25 December, has imposed heavy measures to contain the outbreak, in line with Beijing’s policy that any outbreak should be contained as soon as possible.
The city was able to quickly detect these cases through three rounds of mass testing, He Wenquan, a Xian official, said at a news conference on Sunday, adding that high numbers of cases could persist in the coming days.
“In order to quickly track groups of infected people, after expert analysis, we will intensify control measures in key areas, especially in places with a higher level of risk,” Wenquan said.
The local government also announced that it would launch a citywide disinfection campaign beginning at 6 pm local time, asking residents to close their windows and bring clothes or other items from their balconies.
Residents cannot leave the city without approval from employers or local authorities, and several rounds of mass testing were carried out to identify cases.
The city has yet to announce any infections caused by the Ômicron variant, although Chinese authorities have reported several infections with the new variant among international travelers and in southern China.
Including imported cases, mainland China confirmed 206 new cases as of Dec. 25, up from 140 a day earlier.
No new deaths were reported, leaving the cumulative number of deaths at 4,636. Mainland China had 101,077 confirmed cases as of December 25th.
Reference: CNN Brasil
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