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

Coronavirus pandemic

Guo Rui

Published: 10:07pm, 21 Dec 2021

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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.

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.

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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.

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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Xian municipal authorities said the system crashed due to heavy traffic and advised the public to reduce usage unless unnecessary.

But a resident vented his frustration online, saying such advice was meaningless.

“It’s really a joke! What does ‘don’t show your health code unless necessary’ mean? Do we enjoy showing it? You should hurry to fix the system,” the user posted on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like messaging platform.

This came as the Xian clusters spilled over to four cities – Yanan and Xianyang in Shaanxi, Dongguan in southern Guangdong province and Beijing in the north.

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During an inspection visit to Xian on Sunday, Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan told local officials to be on their guard and strictly implement the “dynamic zero-infection” policy.

The latest Covid-19 resurgence in Xian has been traced to an imported case of the Delta variant, which was also reported to be responsible for the spread in Dongguan, as genome sequencing showed identical patterns.

The northern port city of Tianjin reported a new Delta case on Tuesday. The patient tested positive after returning from the virus-hit city of Shaoxing in eastern Zhejiang province.

This came as China on Monday rolled out even more stringent Covid-19 quarantine and border control rules to counter the Omicron threat, and health authorities pledged to stay true to the zero-Covid policy.

The country has reported six Omicron cases so far across three cities. Four of the cases are imported.

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National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng has said the general policy of “dynamic zero infection” should continue through the winter and spring, but urged authorities to avoid a “one size fits all” approach, so as to reduce disruptions to people’s lives.

Liang Wannian, the head of the NHC’s Covid-19 response expert panel, said local officials should depend on their own risk assessment and discretion in deciding whether to allow travel during the Lunar New Year – a traditional season for family reunions in China – or implement lockdowns.

However, tough restrictions will apply to high-risk areas such as border controls or Olympic venues, Liang said.

“In areas at high risk of epidemic [transmission], and special areas such as ports and borders, as well as areas where major events will be held, such as the upcoming Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics in Beijing, strict control measures should be maintained.”