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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaScience

New Covid-19 high for Chinese Terracotta Warriors city battling deadly seasonal fever

  • Xian reports 42 out of 81 Covid-19 cases nationwide amid uptick in haemorrhagic fever
  • Health app breakdown causes chaos and angers residents, as country pushes ahead with dynamic zero-tolerance strategy

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Construction workers line up for Covid-19 tests in Xian, in China’s northwestern Shaanxi province. Photo: AFP
Guo Rui
More than half of China’s new Covid-19 cases have been detected in Xian, marking a new high for the northwestern city battling a twin onslaught of the coronavirus and deadly haemorrhagic fever.
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The country reported 81 new confirmed Covid-19 cases on Monday, 57 of them locally transmitted, the National Health Commission said.

Forty-two of the new local cases were found in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, setting a record for the Covid-19 outbreak there.

Home to the famed Terracotta Warriors and nearly 100 universities and colleges, Xian has put tens of thousands of residents under quarantine and ordered a new round of mass testing for Covid-19.

School, business and tourism activities, and mass gatherings have been suspended.

This came as the city registered a significant uptick in cases of haemorrhagic fever, a seasonal but deadly disease caused by the rat-borne hantavirus.

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Authorities also struggled with an overloaded health code app – an essential track-and-trace digital tool – as it broke down on Monday causing confusion and frustration among locals.

Under China’s stringent epidemic prevention and control measures, people need to show the green QR code in order to enter public areas such as subways, restaurants and office buildings.

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