China forced another city into lockdown earlier on Tuesday in a bid to curb rising Covid-19 cases. Authorities in the city of Yuzhou have put the city into lockdown after they found three asymptomatic Covid-19 cases, news agency BBC reported.
Yuzhou joins Xi’an – another Chinese city which is under lockdown since December 23 – in the list of China’s locked down cities as the festivities of the Lunar New Year and the Beijing Winter Olympics are set to begin in February.
Officials said that the lockdown has been imposed in a bid to curb the spread of the disease effectively and ‘within the shortest amount of time’. They also told news agency BBC that bringing down the caseload to zero is currently a high priority political ‘task’.
“The source of the virus is unknown, the number of cases is unclear … the virus control and prevention situation in our city is very severe,” officials of Xuchang city, which has jurisdiction over Yuzhou, were quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.
The Yizhou officials’ directives reflect on how China is still adhering to its zero-Covid policy which aims to eliminate the virus rather than live with it.
China conducts nationwide monitoring of its citizens, uses phone apps coupled with a strict testing regime and mass vaccination in a bid to stamp out Covid.
Residents of Yuzhou, a city 700 kms southwest of Beijing, have been asked to strictly remain indoors and not venture out. People who are tasked with disease containment and medical services are only allowed to venture outside.
Lockdown tests Xi’an’s residents
Xi’an, which is still under lockdown, reported 95 Covid-19 cases on Monday, down from 150 cases or more per day recorded in the final week of December. Residents of Xi’an have complained of food shortages, according to a news report by AP. Though Chinese officials have said that all necessary steps have been taken to meet the needs of the city which has 13 million residents, people have said otherwise. A Chinese official told AP that some communities in the city could be facing supply pressure.
“There may be supply pressure in communities. The government will go all-out to coordinate resources to provide people with daily necessities and medical services,” Zhang Canyou, member of China’s epidemic prevention and control team was quoted as saying by state media Xinhua.
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