Covid-19 outbreak: China extends lockdown of city of 13 million people

As of last weekend, Chinese authorities had quarantined 1,800 symptomatic Covid-19 cases and 42,000 close contacts. Although there have been no cases of infectionOmicronNo cases have been recorded, but experts say that with the recent outbreak rate, the presence of this variant is possible.

Foreign Policy magazine points out several reasons why China’s lockdowns have been particularly effective. Most urban residents live in large, walled residential complexes and apartment complexes with controlled entrances. Villages often have only a single road leading out. And, before 2020, the state had deployed a surveillance infrastructure, using technology ranging from simple to facial recognition.

Chinese cities rely on manpower to enforce lockdowns, including police, security personnel, and residential committees. China also uses centralized quarantine measures, in which Covid-19 patients and those exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus are housed in isolation facilities. This procedure has contributed greatly to the success of the 2020 epidemic control effort.

However, the scale of the lockdown in Xi’an has caused significant problems, with many stories from the city echoing the early weeks of the lockdown in January and February 2020, when the outbreak first began.

Food is a key issue. Every two days, one family member is allowed to go shopping for essentials. But most stores are closed, and those that are open are short of supplies. The government delivers vegetables to residential areas, and local committees distribute them to residents, especially the elderly. Many families have been stocking up on food since the authorities warned of a possible lockdown.

The worst food shortages appear to be in the Yanta district in central Xi’an. The wealthy and densely populated area was placed under partial lockdown on December 17 and briefly reopened before being placed under a city-wide lockdown.

Two officials in Yanta have been fired for multiple violations in epidemic prevention and control. It is likely that more similar cases will be dismissed and prosecuted.

Xi’an’s health care system is stretched, not by the number of Covid-19 cases, but by the pressure of mass testing. Xi’an’s hospital system operates in a tiered fashion: highly skilled doctors and nurses work in central hospitals, while less skilled ones work in poorer, more remote hospitals and community centers. Most of Xi’an’s most senior staff have been assigned to oversee the testing campaign, leaving less skilled workers scrambling to fill the gaps.

Not to mention, hospitals in the city require people to have a negative Covid-19 test result, leading to many unfortunate cases involving patients' lives or prolonging the waiting time for examination, treatment and hospitalization.

The number of new cases in Xi’an is falling sharply, but this has also led to a lot of skepticism. Some even think that the city government is moving patients to other places to quarantine them so they don’t appear in the official statistics.

Xi’an is a major chipmaking hub, and some companies have warned that the lockdown could cause shortages of the product. It is unclear how the city will support affected businesses. In 2020, loans, higher welfare payments and central government aid helped many Chinese cities weather the economic storm.

Other major lockdowns are likely to follow Xi’an. Wuzhou, a city of 1.1 million people a few hundred kilometers from Beijing, has become the second place to be placed under a complete lockdown.