Covid-19 situation in Xian ‘critical’ as China battles to curb spread
- 175 new cases were reported in the city on Monday as residents face further restrictions after six days of lockdown
- Party chief orders universities and colleges to be on high alert and strictly prevent more infections
Xian – known internationally as home of the Terracotta Warriors – remains at the epicentre of China’s outbreak, with just seven local infections recorded across the rest of the country on Monday, according to the National Health Commission.
The city’s 13 million residents were locked down on December 23 for six days in an attempt to control the spread of an outbreak, believed to have originated in a flight from Pakistan.
Since December 9, when the outbreak began, there has now been a total of 810 locally confirmed cases in Xian, capital of Shaanxi province. A fifth round of mass testing began on Monday and public spaces were also disinfected.
In a speech at the Xian command centre for Covid-19 control and prevention on Monday, provincial party chief Liu Guozhong turned attention to universities and colleges, which are already operating under strict conditions.
“The situation of epidemic prevention and control in colleges and universities is dire and complex. All universities should be on high alert,” he said, and ordered all institutions already affected by the outbreak to be strict about preventing further spread.
There are nearly 100 higher education institutions in Xian alone, with about 1.3 million college students in the city. More than 130,000 students who sat the annual national graduate school entrance exam on Saturday were required to show two negative nucleic tests taken in the previous 48 hours.