Despite a draconian lockdown in place today, China’s Covid epidemic has not stopped growing. It was upgraded to the’strictest level’ of its current location in Xian.
Xian has a 150 case load on Sunday compared to 155 a single day before. This is still comparatively low to many other cases overseas. But Beijing quickly imposed severe curbs and ordered all residents to return home last Thursday for any travel except essential.
Communist officials enforced stricter restrictions Monday by imposing a ban on driving and threatening to put anyone behind the wheel of a car with ten days imprisonment.
Although there have been no confirmed cases in Xian of Omicron, the Communist Party is still concerned that any Covid epidemic could affect the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February.
This is compounded when studies by Hong Kong University show that China’s Sinovac vaccine provides little protection against the latest variant.
A new lockdown is in place to stop Covid-19 spreading.
This outbreak resulted to 635 cases of confirmed Omicron-type infections in Xian, China during December 9 to 26, 2012.
A total of 162 cases of domestically transmitted COVID-19 infection with symptoms confirmed were reported in China for Sunday. That’s up from the 158 that was reported on Monday. There were no deaths reported on Sunday.
The case number is the highest ever recorded local symptomatic infection count, since the National Health Commission’s daily bulletin began classifying symptomatic carriers individually at the end of March 2020.
As of December 26th, China was home to 101,277 confirmed pandemic cases. This includes both domestically-transmitted and international travelers. 4,636 people died.
China remains wedded to its ‘zero Covid’ strategy, using sealed borders and long quarantines to try and shut out new variants, with snap lockdowns, mass testing and contact-tracing to wipe out local outbreaks.
This strategy continues to slow global supply chain growth and affect the price of goods.
Earlier this month, Communist Party officials in Zhejiang province, a major hub for e-commerce firm Alibaba, ordered factories to close and travel bans.
The world’s busiest container port, Ningbo is choking containers. Producers of cobalt sulfurate for electric vehicles have had to close their operations due to the congestion. This has caused the metal’s prices skyrocket.
Despite 80 per cent of the population being double-jabbed, the new surge in infections comes as Beijing prepares to welcome athletes from around the world for the start of the Winter Olympics on February 4.
Beijing should ensure this happens. It also runs the risk of spreading the Omicron strain that has already spread across the entire planet.
Following lockdown measures in place to limit the spread coronavirus from Xian, Shaanxi Province to December 26, a rider takes a road without any traffic
At the entrance of a railway station, in Xian, police and other staff wearing protective gear examine documents belonging to a traveller.
Teams of disinfectant personnel are stationed in Xian to spray chemicals and stop the spread.
Hong Kong University researchers discovered that 25 individuals double-jabbled with Sinovac produced insufficient antibodies to fight Omicron.
This is compared to five of 25, who were given two doses by Pfizer.
Not only are these results a threat to Beijing, but they also threaten its “vaccine diplomacy” which sees it competing with other nations in Asia and Latin America to deliver jabs.
The manufacturer of Sinovac responded to the Hong Kong study with claims that one third dose could produce 94% immunity against Omicron.
The firm didn’t provide any evidence to support the assertion.
An additional Hong Kong study found that Omicron could be prevented by only three Omicron jabs.
A medical worker takes a sample from a patient to determine if they have Covid-19. This was captured on December 25, 2005.
One December 25th, Xian resident was swabbed by a medical staff member
Residents in Xian are two hours southwest of Beijing and cannot leave without the approval of their employers. Only one household member can shop for basic necessities each day.
If they are required to work or have urgent needs to attend, other family members cannot leave the house unless their employers approve.
Xian started a campaign to disinfect the entire city. Staffers spray pathogen killing solutions onto roads and buildings.
It is advised that residents not touch any plants following disinfection.
The new mass testing began Monday and urged residents to return home to collect their samples.
Xianyang City and Weinan were both notified of a local symptomatic condition on Sunday.
Guangxi and Guangdong provinces were both home to local infections.