The Snap lockdown, which prompted panic in the city, comes little over a month before Beijing is set to host the Winter Olympics.
Authorities in the Chinese city of Xi’an have put up to 13 million people on lockdown as they try to stop the spread of Covid-19 in the community after 127 infections were discovered in a second round of mass testing.
The emergency lockdown began on Thursday, just over a month before Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics.
All Xi’an inhabitants are prohibited from leaving their homes unless to purchase basic supplies every other day or in an emergency, and travel to and from the city is prohibited except in rare circumstances requiring government approval. In addition, all non-essential enterprises have been shut down.
According to the state news agency Xinhua, authorities issued an order late Wednesday. Sun Chunlan, the vice-premier, has traveled to the region to monitor the lockdown’s execution.
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Infections had spread to 14 districts in Xi’an – home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors – as of Wednesday. Community infections in the capital of Shaanxi province grew after an initial case was detected at a local university. Health workers began a third round of mass testing on Thursday. State media has not reported what the variant of the infections in Xi’an is.
The lockdown measures are some of the most severe since China locked down 11 million residents in Wuhan in early 2020, where the Covid-19 virus was first detected.
China reported 71 local cases on Thursday, 63 of which were in Xi’an.
The lockdown has separated family members with no notice. Some social media users expressed fears and concerns for family members caught in the locked-down region.
“I haven’t been afraid of the epidemic for so long, but this time is different because my child is still in Xi’an,” one Weibo user wrote.
The sudden announcement set off scenes of panic-buying in the city ahead of lockdown at midnight on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. The announcement on Wednesday gave no indication of how long the lockdown will last.
The snap lockdown comes amid fears of growing infections nationwide after cases linked to Xi’an were detected in five other regions, including Beijing to the north and Guangdong to the south, according to state media reports.
China, which is doggedly pursuing a “zero-Covid” approach to the virus, implements some of the world’s strictest measures in a bid to quell all infections, including strict travel restrictions, mass mandatory testing and obligatory quarantine for close contacts. It has placed tens of thousands of people into mandatory quarantine in recent months in response to new infections.
The lockdown comes as China has reported cases of the Omicron variant in at least three provinces and weeks before the Beijing Winter Olympics are set to start on 4 February.
China stepped up its quarantine measures and controls for port cities on Monday, with state media saying authorities are “confident” the spread of Omicron will remain under control.
Other provinces, including the major port hub of Zhejiang, have also been battling a rise in infections in recent weeks.
