China starts to disinfect Xian city after delta outbreak

The western Chinese city of Xi’an has begun widespread disinfection measures since late December 26 to counter a jump in Covid infections that forced the lockdown of 13 million residents, Report informs referring to Bloomberg.

Authorities are spraying disinfectants across the city and asking residents to close windows and avoid touching architectural surfaces and vegetation on streets. Private cars are not allowed on roads. The move came as daily infections spike to around 150 on December 26 and 27, as health authorities seek to uncover more cases with a fourth round of mass testing.

The 2022 Winter Olympics are set to kick off in Beijing February 4. China on December 27 reported a total of 162 domestic Covid infections, with 150 of those from Xi’an, the highest daily caseload since January 22. A surge of that scale is rarely seen in China, which is the only major country in the world still aggressively trying to eliminate the virus via closed borders and stringent domestic curbs under what’s called a Zero Covid strategy.

The Xi’an outbreak, which has seen more than 600 cases in less than three weeks and is being blamed on the delta variant, underscores the difficulty China faces in returning domestic infections to nil as the virus mutates to forms more capable of escaping through stringent containment measures.

The nation has also found a handful of omicron infections among travelers from other countries but hasn’t seen the even more infectious and immunity-evading variant spreading into the community.