China locked down the 13 million residents of Xi’an, the capital city of Shaanxi Province, on Dec. 23. Over 15 million nucleic acid tests have turned up 234 cases, or a positivity rate of 0.000156%, of the Delta variant. People are to stay at home, with one household member allowed out to purchase necessities, once every two days. Otherwise, those who are sick are allowed to go to medical care, and anti-epidemic workers are on duty. All trains in or out of the city were suspended and 765 flights were canceled on Dec. 23. A new round of the testing began on Dec. 23, with another 13 million or so tests to be completed shortly.
On Dec. 4, one passenger on a Pakistani flight, arrived in Xi’an infected with the Delta variant. That person was placed in a quarantine hotel. However, sloppiness in carrying out the prescribed strict regimen allowed the infection to spread to the hotel staff. Ten people have been identified and disciplined for their failure. A second failure was identified in not controlling and managing the close contacts of confirmed cases in a timely fashion, and four more participants were cited for disciplinary actions. On Dec. 9, cases began accumulating, and on Dec. 20, genetic sequencing of the first 36 cases (out of what was then 91 cases) showed they were “highly similar” to the Dec. 4 case.
