A medical worker takes a swab sample from a resident for nucleic acid test at a COVID-19 testing site in Fengtai District in Beijing, capital of China, Jan 23, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
BEIJING/XI'AN – Beijing Municipality has swung into action, adopting swift and targeted measures to contain the spread of infections after a local resurgence in COVID-19 cases was reported recently.
On Sunday, Fengtai, a district of about 2 million people, conducted district-wide nucleic acid testing to mitigate the risk of community transmission after a cluster infection was detected.
Authorities in Fengtai set up over 1,000 sampling sites – mostly in residential areas – and dispatched over 13,000 medical and service support workers to ensure smooth and efficient testing.
Besides, 10 other districts in the Chinese capital sent 4,600 medical personnel to Fengtai to help with the anti-epidemic work.
Authorities in Fengtai set up over 1,000 sampling sites – mostly in residential areas – and dispatched over 13,000 medical and service support workers to ensure smooth and efficient testing
"Early in the morning, workers set up the sampling site in our residential compound and started knocking on doors to remind residents to undergo testing," said a woman surnamed Xu in Shouwei residential area on Sunday.
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Beijing reported nine locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including five confirmed cases and four asymptomatic carriers from 4 pprom Saturday to 4 pm Sunday.
Since Jan 15, the city has reported a total of 43 local COVID-19 cases, with six attributable to the Omicron variant and 37 to the Delta variant, said Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the municipal disease prevention and control center.
Currently, the Omicron variant outbreak has stabilized, with new cases coming from areas already under epidemic control and the risk of community spread is limited, Pang added.
Epidemic prevention workers give thumb-ups at a residential area in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi province, Jan 19, 2022. (TAO MING / XINHUA)
Xi'an clears high, medium-risk areas
Xi'an's traffic, as well as work and production, has fully resumed while government organs at all levels and enterprises have returned to normal since Monday, said the municipal epidemic prevention and control headquarters
Meanwhile, Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi province, cleared all areas classified as high and medium-risk for COVID-19 after more than a month's epidemic prevention and control efforts, local authorities said Monday.
The whole city has been downgraded to low risk, and all residents can travel freely with their health QR code from Monday, according to the municipal epidemic prevention and control headquarters.
The city's traffic, as well as work and production, has fully resumed while government organs at all levels and enterprises have returned to normal since Monday, the headquarters added.
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As of Sunday, the city had reported 2,053 confirmed local cases since the resurgence of the epidemic in December.
"Low risk doesn't mean free of risk. The city will continue to strictly implement epidemic prevention and control measures," said Liu Feng, director of the provincial center for disease prevention and control.