China: Baise in the Southern region of the state bordering Vietnam has imposed a lockdown on Monday after reporting more than 70 coronavirus cases in a period of three days. The estate located 100 km from the Vietnamese border discovered its first local case on Friday after a local returned from Shenzhen for the Lunar New Year Holiday.
The first round of preliminary nucleic acid tests conducted in 200,000 local residents yielded 98 infections officials said. Previously, the city reported 43 confirmed cases. An emergency response mechanism was launched, vehicles entering and leaving the city were barred and residents were confined to their homes. Locking down nearly 4 million people the vice mayor Gu Junyan told in a briefing that no unnecessary movement of any person would be allowed in the southern Guangxi region of Baise.
Meanwhile, China has been sticking to its staunch Zero COVID policy as the country’s capital hosts Winter Olympics. Mass screening camps have been set up and immediate response teams have been backed up for sudden outbreaks.
In December, nearly 13 million residents were restricted from moving around the city of Xi’an, after the national health agency recorded the second-highest surge after the first breakout in Wuhan in 2019. More than 2,000 cases were reported over a month while people faced catastrophe as shortage of daily essentials and bare minimum access to health care prevailed.