China's Xi'an reports 95 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases
Jan 04, 2022
Xi'an [China], January 4 : Xi'an, capital of China's Shaanxi province, has reported 95 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Monday, local media reported citing authorities as saying on Tuesday.
Xi'an has registered 1,758 local cases since the latest virus resurgence on December 9, Xinhua reported.
People living in the city of Xi'an are anxious and frustrated at the local government over the growing challenge of achieving Beijing's zero-Covid policy, which relies on mass testing, extensive quarantines and snaps lockdowns amid a resurgence of the virus.
According to official media reports, on December 29, 2021, Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan went to Xi'an to investigate and guide epidemic prevention and control, requiring Xi'an to quickly lock-in risk personnel, pre-allocate more isolation rooms, and control the close contacts in the first place to achieve daily clearing.
It is after her directives, the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee demanded that Xi'an must achieve the goal of social reset (which loosely means no infected cases among the public) by January 4.
The reports further noted that infected people in Xi'an are being transferred to other places for isolation so that this goal can be achieved.
This also led to stricter measures being adopted by the Shaanxi party secretary Liu Guozhong and the sacking of officials from Xi'an.
Meanwhile, netizens on Weibo have been writing about the non-availability of essential supplies since the Xi'an lockdown began.
It has also been noted by citizens on Weibo that in order to show that the people of Xi'an have ample amount of food, the media aims their cameras at places where goernment is supplying the food sometimes.
The latest example was on January 1, 2022, at No. 23, Shangpu Road in Xi'an received fruits and vegetables sent by the government. They also noted that Shangpu Road is just a block away from the headquarters of the Shaanxi Provincial government which shows selective treatment in relief work. The media excessively emphasized that there are also fruits and meats in the supply. Whereas according to netizens on Chinese social media, a large part of Xi'an is facing food shortage which is not being reported by the media, the report said.
