Number of COVID-19 cases in Xi'an rises to 1,573

Most COVID-19 patients in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, are exhibiting mild symptoms, while only three patients are in critical condition, and eight have recovered and been discharged from hospital, said Zhang Bo, deputy director of the Xi'an municipal health commission, at a news conference on Sunday.

Xi'an reported 122 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections in the city to 1,573 cases since Dec 9, Zhang said.

Rapidly implemented quarantine measures and mass testing have proved effective, as 104 new cases on Saturday were discovered in quarantine and 18 from testing, he said.

The local government ordered a citywide lockdown on Dec 23 to rein in the spread of COVID-19, and some citizens have complained online that they haven't been allowed to go out to buy food.

Ensuring food supply for a city of 13 million people is no easy job, said Xi'an Vice-Mayor Xu Mingfei, adding that relevant departments have been ordered to make all-out efforts to ensure food, medicine and anti-pandemic materials get delivered and to maintain social order.

With the number of daily new COVID-19 cases in Xi'an still exceeding more than 100 since last week, the municipal epidemic prevention and control office announced on Sunday another round of nucleic acid testing for all residents in the Yanta and Gaoxin districts.

Residents in neighborhoods of other districts that have reported COVID-19 cases in the past seven days were also required to take nucleic acid tests.

Liu Guozhong, secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, said the most urgent tasks for Xi'an now was to conduct efficient, thorough testing and to prepare more quarantine facilities.

"We should use every measure to solicit and renovate existing places to meet quarantine standards, and it's better to have more quarantine facilities left unused than to have no room for new infected patients," said Liu while inspecting the municipal epidemic prevention and control command on Saturday.

Liu also inspected the West Xinqiao Logistics Center for Agricultural Products, a major supplier of vegetables in the city. He stressed that workers there should get tested every 48 hours and that the environment should be disinfected on a daily basis.

To strengthen epidemic prevention and control measures in the Yanta district, Yang Jianqiang, another vice-mayor of Xi'an, was appointed by the provincial Party committee as the district Party chief of Yanta. Current chief Wang Bin and deputy chief Cui Shiyue were removed from their posts.

Elsewhere, Ningbo, Zhejiang province, also reported three new COVID-19 cases on Sunday after the city discovered seven in Beilun district on Saturday. Most cases were related to a company in the district.

Two related areas in Beilun were elevated to the middle-risk level, and Ningbo now requires travelers to show a negative COVID-19 testing result within 48 hours of their departure date.