Xian in 'live-or-die' fight on fateful day of anniversary

China's industrial and tech hub of Xian reported more than 100 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, taking its tally of locally transmitted infections to the highest in any Chinese city this year.

Xian had 155 new local cases on Wednesday, taking its number of local infections to more than 1,100 since the flare-up began on December 9 and compelling authorities to put the city of 13 million under lockdown.

Despite the low case count compared with clusters in many cities around the world - which have hit almost 900,000 on average each day between December 22 and 28 in a phenomenon that forced WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to voice concern over "a tsunami of cases" - Xian officials have imposed tough curbs on travel within and out of the city since December 23.

"Xian has reached a live-or-die stage in its fight against the virus," Zhang Fenghu, said an official in the city whose main tourist attraction are terracotta warriors buried with China's first emperor over 2,000 years ago.

Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology, two of the world's largest memory-chip makers, have warned that the lockdown could affect their manufacturing bases in the area.

Yesterday marked the sixth round of citywide testing to trace transmissions and the eighth day of a lockdown that has seen many residents barred from leaving housing compounds and complaining of food shortages.

The eighth day of the lockdown coincides with the second anniversary of early signs of the Wuhan outbreak and of the day when Covid whistleblower Li Wenliang learned of the possibility of a pneumonia-causing virus in Wuhan and shared the information with fellow doctors.

Thousands marked the day by leaving messages on his social media account.

REUTERS