Chinese govt locks down 13million in Xian as Covid-19 cases surge

The city of Xian in northwest China's Shaanxi province with some 13mn residents went into a lockdown on Thursday following the detection of 234 Covid-19 cases since 9 December.

All residents have been ordered to stay indoors, communities have been put under "closed management", and outgoing transport including trains and flights have been cancelled, health authorities said as the city started the third round of nucleic acid testing for all residents.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases at 234 is low for a big city but given China's "zero-Covid" policy, the lockdown is likely to be strictly implemented.

Yang Zhanqiu, a deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University, told the tabloid Global Times the key reason for the lockdown "lies in the scale of community transmission in Xian and unclear epidemiological routes - the outbreak has demonstrated at least three transmission chains". No infection caused by the Omicron variant has been detected in Xian.

The local outbreak has spilled over to at least four other cities, including Yanan and Xianyang in Shaanxi province, Dongguan in south China's Guangdong province, and Beijing.