(CNN) — For residents of northwest China’s Xi’an city, the beginning of 2022 looks a lot like 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and outrage is on the rise.
Since December, the ancient city known as the home of the Terracotta Warriors has been grappling with the largest community outbreak of coronavirus in China since Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic.
To date, more than 1,600 cases have been registered in the city. Although the number pales in comparison to many other countries, the outbreak caused China’s number of cases in the last week of 2021 to reach the highest level since March 2020.
For 12 days and counting, Xi’an’s 13 million residents have been confined to their homes. The city, once a tourist hotspot, ushered in the new year with deserted streets, closed shops, sealed residential complexes, and an empty airport.
The closure is the strictest and largest since Wuhan, which isolated 11 million people in early 2020.
But it is also one of the most chaotic, leaving residents without food and other essential supplies and affecting access to medical services.
There was a wave of anger and frustration against the local government, underscoring the growing challenge facing China’s “zero covid-19” policy, which relies on massive testing protocol, extensive quarantines and sudden shutdowns to end. with any resurgence of the virus.
For nearly two years, these strict measures have protected most of the country from the worst aspects of the pandemic, garnering overwhelming public support. However, as local outbreaks continue to appear, protests in Xi’an raise the question of how long the “zero covid-19” policy can be maintained before public support begins to wane, with millions of residents. caught in a seemingly endless cycle of lockdowns.
Indignation grows at the Covid-19 situation in Xi’an
Last week, Chinese social media was inundated with calls for help and criticism over the alleged incompetence of the Xi’an local government. Residents flooded a live broadcast of a government press conference on COVID-19 asking for food, prompting embarrassed officials to turn off all comments.
Despite censorship, the issue has continued to gain adherents. On Weibo, the Chinese Twitter-like platform, the hashtag “Shopping for groceries in Xi’an is difficult” has been viewed 380 million times as of Monday.
Many expressed their frustration for not hoarding food in advance, as local authorities had repeatedly assured them that food supplies were plentiful and that there was no need to panic.
In the early days of the blockade, each household could send a designated person to buy food every other day. But as cases continued to rise, Xi’an tightened lockdown measures further, requiring all residents to stay home unless allowed outside for mass testing.
“I used to think that people who panicked were stupid. Now I’ve realized that I’m stupid,” read a comment on Weibo.
In the face of public outcry, local officials promised constant food deliveries to residents, and state media published images of food arriving at residential complexes. While supply shortages eased in some neighborhoods, other residents complained on social media – even in comments below state media posts- that they had not received such deliveries in their communities.
Meanwhile, the heavy-handed approach taken in some areas to enforce the blockade has fueled further outrage.
On Friday, images surfaced on Weibo of a man beaten by covid-19 prevention workers at the gates of a residential complex as he tried to enter with a bag of steamed buns. The video, which immediately went viral, showed the buns scattered on the ground as the man fell. The ensuing outcry prompted a statement from the police, who said the two assailants were punished with a seven-day detention and a fine of 200 yuan (about US $ 30).
For some, the cost of the confinement was too high. Last week, state media reported two incidents of people trying their best to escape Xi’an before the restrictions went into effect.
A man traveled 100 kilometers through the Qinling Mountain Range from Xi’an Airport, navigating multiple checkpoints along the way before finally being located and quarantined on December 24, after eight days of travel, according to a Ningshan County Police statement.
In the other incident, a man pedaled his bicycle for 10 hours, at night and in temperatures close to freezing, in an attempt to return to his hometown, after learning that Xi’an would be closed the next day. He was quarantined and fined 200 yuan, according to a statement from the Chunhua County Police.
Despite the difficulties, Xi’an officials they have promised repeatedly his determination to contain the outbreak in public.
At a press conference on Sunday, Liu Guozhong, head of the Communist Party of Shaanxi Province, of which Xi’an is the capital, promised to “continue to lift spirits, strengthen awareness of achieving 100% prevention, control and isolation, prioritize prevention and control of the epidemic in urban villages and achieve the goal of reducing cases to zero in society as soon as possible. “
In a show of determination, the party secretary for the Yanta district, one of the areas hardest hit by the outbreak, was dismissed, Joining a long list of local officials who were fired for failing to contain the covid-19 outbreaks.
Residents queue up for COVID-19 tests at a testing site in Xi’an, China, on December 21.
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The harsh isolation measures appear to be working. On Sunday, the daily case count in Xi’an fell for the first time in more than a week to 122, followed by Monday’s 90 cases.
If the trend continues, it will likely only be a matter of weeks before Xi’an manages to contain its outbreak like other cities have in the past. But it will not be the last time that the coronavirus – and the strict response to eradicate it – causes major disruptions in daily life and the local economy.
At the moment, it is a goal of maintaining the “zero covid-19” that China seems determined to achieve, even if it pushes public patience to the limit.
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