China: new outbreaks in Xin’an. Eleven million in lockdown

The Chinese government is starting to have difficulties in dealing with increasing cases of Codiv-19, pursuing an increasingly utopian policy of "Zero Contagion". The municipal government of Xi'an County in Shaanxi announced on Wednesday a tight lockdown in the city and management and control measures to prevent it from leaving the urban area. Two years after the outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan, Chinese citizens are still in early warning almost more for segregation than for disease. Initially, there were 143 registered cases until 9 December, which later became 155.

The restricted lockdown, which affects about 11 million people, has led to the closure of all activities defined as “Non-essential”, as well as the start of a mass testing campaign that should cover all employees. Despite this, the students' end-of-term exams, over 11,000, will take place regularly, but the candidates will be taken by taxi one by one and accompanied to the test sites. However even essential activities were limited, with only one person being able to go out shopping for the family.

Obviously, tourist trips in the area, now essentially of Chinese people, have also been blocked and specialized agencies have been put on alarm. There is a further element of fear, linked to the fact that there have been some cases of haemorrhagic fevers linked to infections transmitted by animals in the area. Authorities deny that these diseases are communicable between humans, but the case is curious nonetheless

The authorities say that it will take "a few months" to eradicate the infection, but this is happening two years after the official outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan, the official news of which outside China was given on December 30, 2019, with the first communication on the ongoing epidemic from the Chinese government to the World Health Organization. However too late.