Account of life in locked down Xian highlights ‘costs’ of zero-Covid policy

Journalist Jiang Xue says neighbours have been swapping food to deal with supply shortages and encouraging each other after ‘making it through another day’

She says workers tasked with delivering supplies are overstretched and can’t meet demand, and people offering to help can’t get the permit needed to leave home

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Xian, in Shaanxi province, has been locked down for nearly two weeks as authorities grapple with a Covid-19 outbreak. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:39pm, 5 Jan 2022Updated: 6:04pm, 6 Jan 2022

A Chinese journalist based in Xian has told of neighbours trading food with one another to deal with supply shortages and the fear of being sent to a quarantine centre, in an account of life under lockdown in the northwestern city.

The entire city of 13 million people has been locked down for nearly two weeks and ordered to take compulsory tests as authorities grapple with a Covid-19 outbreak that began on December 9, traced to a flight from Pakistan.

While the numbers are low compared with other places – nearly 1,800 locally acquired cases reported so far, with 35 new infections on Tuesday – authorities say the lockdown will be lifted when there is “zero social transmission”.

Journalist Jiang Xue has written an account of life under lockdown in Xian. Photo: Weibo

Confined to their homes, many residents have complained on social media that it has been badly managed and they are struggling to get hold of food and essentials. Officials say the problem is a shortage of workers to make deliveries and that they are working to get supplies to residents.

There have also been reports of difficulties getting access to hospitals, where patients must provide a negative test result to enter. In one account on social media, a woman said her pregnant aunt had lost her baby after she was refused immediate entry to a hospital. The provincial women’s federation on Wednesday said it was investigating.

In her account titled “10 days in Xian”, posted to social media network WeChat on Tuesday, independent journalist Jiang Xue said courier services in the city had been suspended since December 21 and people were unable to order online.

Since then, people in her neighbourhood had tried to help each other by trading food and sourcing fresh vegetables from a community vendor.

Jiang also said the workers tasked with delivering supplies were overstretched and could not meet demand, while people who wanted to help as volunteers could not do so without a permit to leave home – and they were rarely granted.