Xi’an in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province reported 49 new COVID-19 cases on Dec. 24 , the second day of the city’s lockdown. Contact tracing showed that the cases were found scattered across the city of 13 million, and that the outbreak was caused by the Delta variant. On top of China’s highly effective zero-COVID policy, there is additional concern because Beijing will host the Winter Olympics in just six weeks. All flights in and out of Xi’an have been canceled.
The regional Communist Party has deployed an additional 33,000 government workers to help the frontline staff working to contain the outbreak. The city of 13 million has been put under tight lockdown, to try to nip the problem in the bud. Xinhua reported that authorities also “made an all-out effort to ensure the national postgraduate entrance examination for about 135,000 examinees in the city starting Saturday goes smoothly.… The municipal transport department has organized 5,000 taxies and cars on ride-hailing platforms to provide one-on-one rides for examinees.”
