City to be locked down after first cases of Omicron subvariant BA.5 reported in China
The city of Xian in northwest China’s Shaanxi province will be locked down from Wednesday, following a community outbreak of the highly transmissible Omicron BA.5
The city of Xian in northwest China’s Shaanxi province will be locked down from Wednesday, following a community outbreak of the highly transmissible Omicron BA.5, the first cases of the Covid subvariant in China, becoming the latest challenge to the country’s zero-Covid policy.
The Xian municipal government ordered a week-long lockdown after around a dozen locally transmitted cases - both symptomatic and asymptomatic - were detected in the past three days.
All public places including schools, restaurants, gyms, cultural activity venues and markets will be shut down from Wednesday, the announcement on Tuesday said. While in-house dining has been suspended, take-aways will be allowed, authorities said.
“Special places such as prisons, welfare homes, and old-age institutions will be closed for management,” a state media report said. Strict curbs on the movement of private and public transport are also expected to be set in place.
The residents are likely to go through repeated mass tests this coming week in line with the zero-Covid protocols followed by China.
Zhang Yi, an infectious diseases specialist from Shaanxi’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told the news platform Cnwest.com that the Omicron BA.5 strain was behind the latest outbreak in the provincial capital Xian.
“The Omicron BA.5 subvariant is even more transmissible and spreads even more quickly than the previous BA2.2 sublineage, and it has an even stronger capability to escape vaccines,” Zhang was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
Both BA.4 and BA.5 were first detected in South Africa earlier this year and are said to be behind an uptick in cases in various countries, including the US.
For Xian’s residents, the shutting down of the city, will be a grim reminder of the situation barely six months ago.
The city, known for the Terracotta Army historical site, went through a gruelling lockdown for weeks late last year following a Covid-19 outbreak in December. It was again partially locked down in April, following another cluster of cases.
Less time to read?
Try Quickreads
-
Video of Finland PM ‘partying hard’ stokes controversy, she says ‘not drugged’
Finland prime minister Sanna Marin found herself in the midst of a controversy after hosting a party for her friends at her private home; a video of the party went viral on social media. The video - which features six people, including Marin - shows them dancing and singing. Sanna Marin has also reacted to the matter, clarifying that she was only partying and not using drugs herself.
-
China test-fires missile in Xinjiang, brings down plane in drill: Report
Xinjiang Military Command, which oversees the border with India, tested a surface-to-air missile in a high-altitude area of Xinjiang, bringing down a targeted aircraft, reports said. China's national broadcaster, CCTV, reported on August 15, India's Independence Day, that the Xinjiang command conducted live-fire drills with a “new type of surface-to-air missile” at an altitude of more than 4,500 metres (14,760 feet), the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said in a report.
-
Tanzania installs internet on Mount Kilimanjaro for Insta-ascents
Tanzania has installed high-speed internet services on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, allowing anyone with a smartphone to tweet, Instagram or WhatsApp their ascent up Africa's highest mountain. State-owned Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation set up the broadband network on Tuesday at an altitude of 3,720 metres (12,200 feet), with Information Minister Nape Nnauye calling the event historic. He said the summit of the 5,895-metre (19,300-foot) mountain would have internet connectivity by the end of the year.
-
Rushdie's attacker says murder bid carried out without any contact with Iran
The 24-year-old man charged with the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie has denied being in contact with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and said that he acted alone when he stabbed the Mumbai-born author, whom he disliked for being "disingenuous". In a video interview to the New York Post from Chautauqua County Jail, Matar said that “When I heard he survived, I was surprised, I guess.”
-
Canadian parliamentary committee plans Taiwan visit amid tensions
A large Canadian parliamentary committee delegation is planning to visit the Chinese-claimed island of Taiwan in October, local media reported on Wednesday, a development that could further worsen relations between Ottawa and Beijing. Eight members of Canada's House of Commons standing committee on international trade are expected to travel to Taiwan, including many who are members of the Canada-Taiwan Friendship Group in the parliament, Canadian media reported.
