BEIJING (Reuters) – Authorities in Xian on Monday launched a disinfection campaign to try to eradicate the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, on the fifth day of strict containment decreed in the Chinese city of 13 million people after the occurrence of COVID-19 cases.
According to official statistics, 150 new symptomatic local cases were identified in the city on Sunday, out of a total of 158 across China. During the period from December 9 to 26, 635 infections by the coronavirus were recorded in this metropolis in the center of the country.
Under the Chinese government’s “zero covid” strategy, strict containment has been decreed in Xian.
Since December 23, residents have been banned from leaving the city without permission from their employer or local authorities. In each household, only one person is allowed to buy basic necessities every two days. The other members of the family cannot leave the home unless they exercise a trade deemed essential or have to deal with an emergency, with the green light from their employer or the municipality.
On Monday, local authorities asked the entire population not to travel in order to carry out a new city-wide screening.
At the same time, municipal employees began spraying streets and buildings with disinfectant solutions and residents were instructed not to touch plants or building surfaces.
Dongyan Jin, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, the question of the usefulness of such an outdoor disinfection campaign arises given the low risk of contamination with the virus outdoors in a confined city.
“It’s like shooting mosquitoes with a cannon,” he says.
(Report Roxanne Liu and Gabriel Crossley; French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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