China extends confinement in the north to hundreds of thousands due to increased coronavirus infections

Hundreds of thousands more were placed under lockdown in northern China due to a covid outbreak that has left a record number of infections of coronavirus in 21 months and has led to the closure of the city of Xi’an.

The outbreak has reached other surrounding cities and Yan’an, 300 kilometers from Xi’an, ordered a business shutdown Tuesday and urged hundreds of thousands of residents in a district to stay home.

The infection figures are very low compared to those registered in the vast majority of countries in the world, but China has opted for a virus eradication strategy consisting of severe restrictions to cut off all spread.

On Tuesday, health authorities reported 209 new infections, the highest daily number since March 2020 in the country that first detected the coronavirus two years ago, in the city of Wuhan.

Faced with this rebound, and on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, the authorities last week imposed a lockdown on the city of Xi’an, of 13 million inhabitants.

This confinement is the harshest decreed in China since the city of Wuhan was almost completely closed at the beginning of the pandemic.

The restrictions imposed (residents are prohibited from driving and only one person from each household can go out, every three days, to buy food) has led to a cascade of calls to social services asking for food and other basic products.

“I’m about to starve,” said a user on the Weibo social network. “There is no food, in my housing complex they do not let me go out and I am about to run out of instant soups, please help!” He insisted.

“I do not want to hear any more news that everything is fine (…) Even if the supply was so abundant, it is useless if you do not give it to the people,” said another.

The authorities insist that the food supply is stable and maintain controls on entering and leaving Xi’an.

__________________________________