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 Xian reported 151 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed
symptoms for Tuesday, or nearly all of the 152 cases nationwide,
bringing the total number of local Xian cases to nearly 1,000 during
the Dec. 9-28 period. No cases of the Omicron variant have been
announced in the city so far.
While the Xian outbreak is small compared with outbreaks in many
other places around the world, officials have imposed tough curbs on
travel within and leaving the city from Dec. 23, in line with
Beijing's drive to immediately contain outbreaks as they appear.
People in the city have not been allowed to leave town without
clearance from their employer or community authorities.
A 32-year-old mechanic went to Xian on a business trip and had
planned to leave last week, only to find he had to stay for longer
after local community officials refused to grant the certificate to
clear his departure.
That means he has missed his wife's birthday and might be forced to
spend the New Year in Xian. "I just want to go home," he told
Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Since Monday, the Xian government has suspended granting permission
to people seeking to leave their homes to buy essentials, as
epidemic containment measures rose a notch.
The city said in-person shopping could be resumed for people in less
risky areas once mass testing returned negative results, without
saying exactly when stay-at-home orders would be lifted.
The measure stirred complaints on social media from some residents
about the uncertain access to fresh produce.
Several district-level governments in Xian have started arranging
grocery deliveries to peoples' homes, or setting up temporary booths
in large residential compounds selling fresh produce, the city
government said on Wednesday.
A 23-year-old student in Xian, also speaking on condition of
anonymity, said his family had received one free package of
vegetables delivered to his home since the shopping restriction, and
has not yet been told when the next batch will arrive.
[to top of second column] |
 There was no choice on what was
delivered, but the package included the most
common groceries: "Although I do crave certain
food, there is no disruption to my daily life."
MANUFACTURING HIT
Authorities started another round of city-wide testing on Wednesday,
the fifth since Dec. 21. The number of infections found from mass
testing started to decline in the fourth round, while the numbers in
the first three were elevated, a local official said on Wednesday.
Samsung, which operates a sprawling semiconductor base in Xian, said
on Wednesday it had decided to "temporarily adjust operations" at
manufacturing facilities in the city due to the COVID-19 situation.
Chinese electric vehicle company BYD Co reiterated on Wednesday that
the virus had caused some impact, without giving a timeline on when
operations may normalise.
"Our production has been affected by the epidemic outbreak to some
degree," BYD told Reuters. "We are currently actively making
adjustments in response."
Western Superconducting Technologies said on Tuesday its current
production wasn't at full capacity as it complied with government's
COVID-19 curb, while it will produce at full capacity once the Xian
outbreak is under control.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Martin Quin Pollard, Sophie Yu, Ryan Woo
and Gabriel CrossleyEditing by Ryan Woo, Shri Navaratnam and Michael
Perry)
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