China’s Xian to end Covid-19 lockdown if it reaches ‘zero social transmission’
- City could ease its measures once all new confirmed infections are linked to previously recorded cases, with no other local transmission, official says
- Full lockdown is also announced in the small city of Yuzhou, in central province of Henan
Zero social transmission would mean that new confirmed cases were either isolated “close contacts” or “close contacts of close contacts” of previously recorded cases, with no other transmission in the community, Chen Zhijun, deputy director of the Xian Disease Prevention and Control Centre, told news portal ThePaper.cn.
“After the goal of ‘zero social transmission’ is achieved, we expect to gradually lift the restrictions on the whole city of Xian,” Chen was quoted as saying.
Across China, 108 new symptomatic local infections were reported on Tuesday, with 95 of them – five more than the day before – in Xian, Shaanxi province. The northwestern city has reported 1,758 local symptomatic cases since the outbreak emerged on December 9, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).
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Chinese city Yuzhou of over 1 million forced into lockdown with just 3 coronavirus cases recorded
The country also had 21 new asymptomatic local cases and 100 new imported cases (67 of them symptomatic), the NHC said.