A Chinese city may return to Covid-like lockdown measures as part of its plan to contain an outbreak of influenza cases.
Despite the Chinese government only recently lifting its zero-Covid policy, the northern city of Xi’an issued an emergency notice on Wednesday which allows local authorities to shut schools and businesses if the virus reaches high levels.
The announcement has sparked outrage from some of the city’s 13 million citizens after it was locked down for a month in 2021, to stop the spread of Covid, with residents largely barred from leaving their homes.
“Is it not enough to torture people, that we are thinking of doing it again and again?” wrote one user on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, Bloomberg reported
“If we have to lock down because of influenza, then won’t we have to lock down every time flu season comes? We will not go backward?”
Another user remarked how the plan “shows just how unpopular sealing off cities is”, adding: “The lockdown has freaked people out”.
In some cases, schools have already been closed while antivirals are now in short supply due to the uptick in influenza.
In the World Health Organization’s surveillance update report this month, it stated that “influenza activity increased steeply in both northern and southern provinces in China” due to two strains.
On February 22, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of influenza cases topped Covid for the first time this year.
China has reported nearly 60,000 coronavirus-related deaths since early December.
The toll included 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by Covid-19 and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with Covid-19 since December 8, the National Health Commission announced.
It said those “deaths related to Covid” were only those which occurred in hospitals.
