The Chinese city of Xi'an has imposed tight curbs on outbound travel and commuting within the city, putting its 13 million residents in a lockdown as a new COVID-19 outbreak sees community cases tick higher.
The daily count of domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections with confirmed symptoms in Xi'an has increased for six consecutive days since Dec. 17. That brings the total number of local cases to more than 200 during Dec. 9-22, smaller than many outbreaks outside of China. No infection caused by the Omicron variant has been detected in Xi'an.
Starting Thursday (December 23), only one person in each Xi'an household can go out for necessary shopping every two days, while other family members must stay home unless they have essential jobs, Zhang Fenghu, deputy secretary general of the Xi'an municipal government, told media at a Wednesday (December 22) news conference.
The city has run at least two rounds of mass testing.
Mainland China had 100,644 confirmed cases as of Dec. 22, including both local ones and those found among international travelers.
