In China, the large city of Xi’an, located in the center of the country, is closing. From midnight July 5 and for one week, public places, schools, places of worship, museums and markets will remain closed. Eighteen Omicron cases have been reported since Saturday, including Ba.5 subvariant infections.
With our correspondent in China, Stephane Lagarde
Schoolchildren have gone on vacation earlier, cafes and restaurants only serve take-out and, once again, the thirteen million inhabitants of the former imperial capital are invited to limit their outings. ” We are in a race against time against the virus “, has declared Tuesday evening Zhang Xuedong, the deputy director of the epidemic prevention and control office.
One-upmanship at the local level
Confined for a month last winter, then again A few days in April, Xi’an is its ninth plane prevention and control and counts, this Wednesday, nine areas classified as high risk Covid-19, ten areas medium-risk, where residents are required to stay at home. The rest of the population is not confined, but this French teacher fears that with the Omicron rebound, his vacation in the island of Hainan will fall into the water.
” When they set up risk zones for only a few caseshe said, it is generally that they do not know the origin of the contaminations. For now, I’m not worried about leaving. On the other hand, I don’t know what the welcoming committee of Hainan will say to the tourists from Xi’an. If it’s to spend my week of vacation in quarantine in a hotel that I didn’t choose and from where I won’t even see the sea, then no thank you. Each time outbreaks are discovered locally, it is one-upmanship. »
Asterisk on sanitary passes
Amazingly, this teacher continues, it is the discrepancy between the relaxation measures decreed by the central power a few days ago and the firmness of the local authorities who are afraid of being sanctioned. We no longer have asterisks on health QR codes, but locally the “zero Covid” clamps close even more quickly at the slightest case of contamination. »
The asterisk, the star on the health passes indicating the passage through a district where cases of contamination have been reported and therefore stigmatizing its carrier, has been deleted by the National Health Commission in order to relaunch interregional travel. At the same time, no city wants to risk finding itself in the same situation as Shanghai and its extended confinement, and local authorities are stepping up controls as soon as new infections appear. High place of cultural tourism, Xi’an was just impatient with the return of tourists this summer. Starting this Wednesday, the museums and in particular the famous tomb of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang and his terracotta army, will remain temporarily closed.
Omicron alert also in Shanghai. The economic capital has resumed mass testing in nine districts after a confirmed case was detected in a karaoke bar, raising fears of a new outbreak of infection.
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