TKings new symptomatic cases of Covid-19, discovered in Yuzhou, have pushed the Chinese authorities to reconfine more than a million additional inhabitants, one month before the Beijing Winter Olympics. Since the start of the epidemic, the authorities have applied a “zero Covid” strategy which consists of doing everything to limit the occurrence of new cases as much as possible. However, sporadic rebounds have occurred regularly in recent months and the country is redoubling its vigilance in the run-up to the Winter Olympics (from February 4 to 20, 2022).
The city of Yuzhou, located in Henan province nearly 800 kilometers south of Beijing, announced Monday evening to its 1.2 million inhabitants that they had to stay at home, in order to limit the spread of the virus. The measure, the duration of which has not been specified, is taken after the discovery of three asymptomatic cases of Covid-19. Everywhere in Yuzhou, “barriers will be positioned to strictly apply prevention measures”, warned the town hall on its official Weibo account. Any exit from the locality is now prohibited, unless authorized.
Thirteen million inhabitants already confined
China reported 175 new cases on Tuesday, including 95 in Xi’an (North), where 13 million people have also been in hospital for nearly two weeks. This is the strictest and most important containment in China since that of Wuhan (Center) at the very start of the pandemic. The city was the first in the world to impose radical measures two years ago to curb the circulation of what was then presented as a mysterious virus.
Xi’an, famous for its underground terracotta army, is the new epicenter of the pandemic in the country. More than 1,600 cases have been identified there since December 9. This official balance sheet is without comparison with the daily accounts announced in the majority of the countries of the world. But it represents a significant number of cases for China.
