China Locks Down Lanzhou City Due to COVID-19 Surge

On Tuesday, Lanzhou City Mayoralty announced that the four million inhabitants of its territory are going into quarantine due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.

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Previously, the Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) reported 51 active cases in the Gansu province, 39 of which were registered in its capital city, Lanzhou. It also pointed out that there are 33,307 people under medical observation throughout the country.

"The situation of epidemic control and prevention in Lanzhou is serious and complex," the Mayor said and explained that the quarantine was taken to prevent the COVID-19 outbreak from spreading further.

Local authorities will launch nucleic acid tests and confine residential complexes, from which citizens will only be able to leave to buy groceries, receive medical treatment, or participate in epidemiological control and prevention tasks. In order to enter out of their homes, the inhabitants of Lanzhou must present a green quick recognition code (QR) on their mobile phone, which guarantees that its carrier is not infected or has not been in contact with infected people.

The latest outbreak in China was detected in mid-October when a group of retirees traveled to tourist areas in Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi provinces. The NHC reported that there are 603 active cases throughout the country, 21 of which are in serious health conditions since the last outbreak is caused by the Delta variant.

Despite the fact that 2.2 billion vaccines have already been administered among the 1.4 billion inhabitants, the authorities continue strictly their policy of zero tolerance against COVID-19, which implies selective confinements and massive tests for coronavirus in all those areas where it is detect cases.

In addition, this Asian country still applies the strict entry controls that it implemented in March 2020, so that those who land in China must present negative PCR and antibody tests before boarding, after which a two-week quarantine period awaits them. Since the pandemic began, authorities have registered 96,840 COVID-19 cases and 4,636 related deaths.