After two cases of the omicron variant were discovered, Anyang, which is home to 5.5million people, was ordered locked down on Monday. Residents are prohibited from leaving the premises and all stores, except those that sell necessities, have been closed.
For nearly three weeks, another 13 million people were held in Xi’an. Yuzhou had 1.1 million for more than a week. The lockdown of Anyang was announced to facilitate mass testing of residents. This is a standard procedure in China’s strategy to identify and isolate infected persons as quickly as possible.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the lockdowns have been the most extensive since Wuhan was closed and the majority of Hubei province shut down in early 2020. China has been focusing on smaller areas that have been affected by pandemics since then.
In an effort to stop outbreaks from spreading, the city has reinstituted lockdowns across the entire city in anticipation of the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing on February 4.
Huang Chun, a Beijing Olympics official responsible to disease control, stated that organizers rely on athletes and officials for preventing an outbreak that could impact participation.
Huang stated that if the mass cluster transmission occurs, it will have an impact on the Games and the schedule. We leave all options open, as the worst case scenario, if it does happen, is not dependent on man’s will.
After students were infected, the Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam ordered that kindergartens and primary schools be closed. Schools will close Friday, and schools will remain closed until the Lunar New Year holiday in February.
After discovering that the omicron variant was spreading beyond those arriving from abroad, the semiautonomous Chinese city has increased pandemic-related restrictions.
Two other cases of omicron in Anyang are suspected to be connected to the cases discovered Saturday in Tianjin. This is the first time that omicron has been spread to mainland China from people other than those who have traveled from overseas and their immediate family.
Anyang, an important archeological site and the capital of the Shang Dynasty’s ancient Shang dynasty, is where you can find the earliest Chinese writing on what are known as oracle bones.
In a lockdown notice posted online late Monday by state media, the city stated that all non-essential vehicles were banned from the streets. It is still quite low with only 58 cases confirmed since Monday morning.
Tianjin is a port of major importance that is located less than an hour away from Beijing via high-speed railway. It has taken mass testing to determine if any affected areas have been locked down. At noon Tuesday, 97 people were confirmed to have tested positive in this city of 14,000,000 people. There had been 49 people with symptoms, 15 people without symptoms and 33 people awaiting further verification.
Xi’an, Yuzhou and Yuzhou both battle the delta variant. Neither has reported any omicron cases.
In China’s worst outbreak since the first one in Wuhan, more than 2,000 people were infected in Xi’an. This ancient capital is a popular tourist destination that also houses the Terracotta Warriors ruins as well as a Samsung computer chip manufacturing plant.
