Coronablog: New measures take effect today, cultural sector protests
The highest number of infections in one day was counted in China on Saturday since the start of the pandemic. This is mainly due to the corona outbreak in the city of Xi’an, in the north of the country. The city met 13 million residents, which has been on lockdown as of Thursday, registered 155 cases of symptomatic COVID-19 domestically on Saturday. The day before, there were 75.
Across China, 158 infections were diagnosed yesterday. That is the largest number since China managed to get its national corona outbreak under control in early 2020. It would not be infections with the omikron variant of the coronavirus. This variant has only been noticed by a few foreign travelers and in southern China.
In Xi’an, a total of 485 people with a local, symptomatic COVID-19 infection were counted between December 9 and 25. Due to the lockdown in the city, residents are only allowed to go out sporadically.
The simple coronavirus outbreak, as far as is known, started in the city of Wuhan. However, China has had far fewer cases than other countries for a long time. That’s partly because of the extremely strict policy of immediate lockdowns if a contamination has been used in a city.
The Chinese say that some infections in the capital Beijing can also be traced back to the outbreak in Xi’an. The Winter Olympics are held there in February. China therefore wants to ensure that there are as few corona cases in that city as possible.