In the last afterglow of 2021, residents of a small district in Xi'an lined up for nucleic acid testing.
The first day of 2022 is the tenth day of the "lockdown" of the West Security City. In the strict epidemic prevention and control measures, more than 10 million people in Xi'an have resigned from the old and welcomed the new. Since Xi'an reported new local confirmed cases of COVID-19 on December 9, 2021, as of 24:00 on December 31, 2021, Xi'an has reported a total of 1,451 local confirmed cases.
In the two years since the global outbreak of covid-19, Xi'an has withstood many tests. In the outbreak at the beginning of 2020, xi'an had a cumulative total of 120 confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia, including 26 imported cases at home and abroad. This figure is as of February 20, 2020, and there have been no new locally confirmed cases in Xi'an since then.
But this thousand-year-old capital with tens of millions of people has encountered an unprecedented epidemic crisis in the last month of 2021. On December 9, xi'an had the first locally confirmed case in this round of the epidemic, and by December 21, the cumulative number of locally confirmed cases exceeded 100, reaching 143.
On December 22, the cumulative number of locally confirmed cases in Xi'an exceeded 200. Later in the day, Xi'an announced the upgrade of the sealing and control policy: from 0:00 on December 23, the city's communities (villages) and units will implement closed management. As a result, Xi'an has entered the state of sealing and control of the whole city, and it has been ten days since then.
In the past ten days, people living, working and studying in the city have experienced the research and recruitment examination of "the most difficult, the most complicated situation and the most problems in the history of Shaanxi"; experienced the shortage of daily necessities at home after the sealing and upgrading of the situation - the market reserve materials are sufficient, but because many distribution personnel are difficult to arrive at the post, the "last hundred meters" of the supply chain are stuck in the neck; also experienced round after round of nucleic acid testing of all employees, from the 23rd to the 30th, the city carried out a total of 5 rounds of nucleic acid testing.
To solve these problems, countless cadres and volunteers work day and night, Xi'an sinks 64,000 cadres at all levels and mobilizes 25,000 volunteers (22nd data); since December 29, cadres under the age of 45 in Shaanxi Provincial Organs and Enterprises and Institutions have uniformly arranged for the sinking of Xi'an grassroots frontline to support the epidemic prevention and control work. They and other epidemic prevention and control personnel, urban operation guarantees and practitioners in industries closely related to residents' lives support the basic operation of this city of tens of millions of people.
"There is food in the house, and the heart is not panicked." In order to make people in the whole city feel at home, solving the problem of people eating has become a top priority. Since the early morning of the 28th, many districts and counties and development zones in Xi'an Have increased their efforts to supply daily necessities, released meat, eggs and milk and other materials overnight, and sent them free of charge to community buildings and buildings at different times, ensuring the basic living materials needs according to households. This measure has effectively alleviated the difficulties of some residents in eating and drinking, and also alleviated people's anxiety. Many residents of the community voluntarily sign up as volunteers and actively participate in the distribution of vegetables in the community.
In addition, neighbors in the same neighborhood, who were originally strangers, also had more intersections during the quarantine period, and people became acquainted with each other by exchanging supplies, sending food to each other, helping to run errands, and so on. With the passage of time, people gradually became calmer and calmer from the initial anxiety and even panic, and the sealed cities became rhythmic and orderly. This may mean that the worst is over.
The long-lasting calm of "Chang'an" was broken
At first, people didn't realize that the epidemic would develop so rapidly.
On December 9, Xi'an reported the first confirmed case in this round of the epidemic, which was Xiang Mou, a member of the special class of the hotel in baqiao district of Xi'an City. It is responsible for delivering food, collecting garbage and killing people in quarantine. The Shaanxi Health Commission reported that the preliminary analysis judged that the cause of the infection was caused by the occasional occupational exposure of the staff of the special class.
Later, the CDC performed whole genome sequencing of the locally confirmed case specimens, which were Delta variants, which were highly homologous to the imported cases found in passengers on Pakistan's inbound flight PK854 (Islamabad-Xi'an) on December 4.
However, in view of the high risk of the occupation engaged in by the first case mentioned above and the closedness of the living and working space, in the eyes of many people, Xiang was infected as an occasional and isolated incident of infection. Previously, in March 2021, there was also an occasional infection in Xi'an: an inspector accidentally exposed the infection in the closed isolation ward of the infectious disease hospital, but it did not spread.
Three days later, on December 12, Xi'an reported another confirmed case, Guo Mou, who was a staff member of an outpatient department on Yanta South Road in Xi'an. On 11 December, the case was diagnosed with abnormal results in routine nucleic acid testing by personnel in key industries.
Surprisingly, the results of the circulation survey show that the above two confirmed cases do not intersect. So, how was Guo infected? No conclusions have yet been reached. His streaming information received attention, showing that he lived a "two-point and one-line" life almost every day, "monotonous and boring and toiling". The emergence of a second confirmed case has alerted some locals.
Three days later, on December 15, Xi'an again reported 2 new locally confirmed cases and 1 case of positive local nucleic acid testing, all three of which appeared in the family hospital of Chang'an University Headquarters. Due to the dense personnel of the three people living and working, there is no obvious trajectory cross with the first two confirmed cases. How they were infected is still inconclusive.
In the days that followed, the number of confirmed cases multiplied. On the 18th, the cumulative number of local confirmed cases exceeded 10; on the 19th, 19 new cases were reported; on the 20th, the number of new cases was reported as 42; on the 21st, 53 new cases were reported; on the 22nd, the number rose to 63. From 24:00 on December 9 to 22, the cumulative number of confirmed cases reported in Xi'an in this round of the epidemic reached 206, far exceeding the number of local confirmed cases in Xi'an in 2020.
In the outbreak at the beginning of 2020, xi'an had a cumulative total of 120 confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia, including 26 imported cases at home and abroad. This figure is as of February 20, 2020, and there have been no new locally confirmed cases in Xi'an since then.
In the second half of 2021, Xi'an has experienced two confirmed incidents of foreign tourists, but both have survived without danger. So much so that people once relished the slogan of cultural tourism in Xi'an, "the ancient capital of a thousand years, often come to Chang'an".
But this time, the epidemic broke the ongoing calm.
The whole city is sealed
On the afternoon of December 22, the Information Office of the Xi'an Municipal Government held a press conference on the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic in Xi'an, which was the 33rd press conference since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic and the eighth press conference since the current round of the epidemic in Xi'an – one per day since December 15.
At the 33rd press conference, Zhang Fenghu, deputy director of the office of the Xi'an Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters and deputy secretary general of the Municipal Government, announced that from 0:00 on December 23, 2021, Xi'an will implement the management of epidemic prevention and control and comprehensively strengthen control measures. Previously, on December 21, Liu Feng, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference on epidemic prevention and control in Shaanxi Province that in this round of epidemics, there was hidden transmission in Xi'an, forming a certain scale of community transmission, and there have been spillover cases.
The specific measures taken by Xi'an after the implementation of the epidemic prevention and control promotion management include further strengthening social control and significantly reducing the flow of personnel. In addition to the needs of epidemic prevention and the protection of people's livelihood, non-essential places are temporarily closed; the city's communities (villages) and units implement closed management, each family is purchased by 1 person every 2 days, and other family members generally do not go out except for work in industries closely related to epidemic prevention and control, urban operation guarantee, and residents' lives, and need to hold certificates issued by units and communities when going out.
At 16:00 on the same day, the Information Office of the Shaanxi Provincial Government held the 39th press conference on the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Shaanxi Province, and Vice Mayor of Xi'an City, Tong Jiang, introduced that as of 22:00, Xi'an city has delineated 229 sealing and control areas, 76 control areas, 160,000 people, and 685,000 people. The adjustment and demarcation of 2 administrative district control areas, involving 1 area of Beilin District and 2 areas of Yanta District, involving a total of 7 streets, 58 communities and 449 communities (family homes and courtyards) in these 2 areas, involving 582,000 people.
According to Qi Jiang, in accordance with the principle of "promotion and control, cadre sinking, flat operation, and territorial disposal", Xi'an City has adjusted and set up a community control group, which has been promoted by municipal leaders, and 54 department-level cadres from the Organization Department of the Municipal Party Committee, the Civil Affairs Bureau, and relevant departments have been dispatched, 5 roving supervision groups, 20 first-line package grasp groups, and work plans and key work lists have been formulated. The sealing and control areas and control areas are all set up by the districts, counties and development zones in the community, and seven working groups are set up under them, to coordinate the development and reform, industrial and information technology, public security, and other parties to make all-out efforts to prevent and control, and work together to promote community prevention and control work.
As of 00:00 on the 22nd, Xi'an city has sunk a total of 64,000 cadres at all levels (24,000 cadres in various districts, counties and development zones, 20,000 cadres in streets (towns), and more than 20,000 community cadres on the front line to participate in epidemic prevention and control), mobilizing 25,000 volunteers to form a group prevention and group control.
This is the second city-wide control measure implemented in Xi'an since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in early 2020. A city of tens of millions of people was once again pressed the "pause button".
The most difficult to study in history
After the implementation of the city-wide control, the first group to fall into anxiety are candidates who take the 2022 national graduate admissions test. The total number of applicants for the shaanxi provincial examination is nearly 170,000, of which about 135,000 are candidates who take the examination in Xi'an.
On December 16, the Shaanxi Provincial Education Examination Institute issued an announcement on the application for the loan examination for candidates who could not go to other provinces to take the examination, but as the epidemic situation changed, more problems arose. On the evening of December 21, the Shaanxi Provincial Education Examination Institute issued another announcement in response, which will be divided into 7 categories to solve the research and examination problems under the epidemic.
However, there are still many details to be solved, such as whether the nucleic acid test can arrange the candidate's channel? Do I need a paper version of my nucleic acid test report? In the sealed management community, can not go out of the nucleic acid test, how to go out during the exam and so on. In the following days, the Shaanxi Provincial Education Research Institute issued five consecutive announcements and a letter to the candidates. Respond to the candidate's questions one after another and give solutions. In the meantime, there are also media joint nucleic acid testing agencies to provide nucleic acid testing services for candidates.
From December 25th to 27th, the 2022 National Master's Degree Admissions Examination was held. According to the statistical information released by the official website of the Department of Education of Shaanxi Province, 168,000 people registered for the examination in Shaanxi Province, and 143252 people actually took the examination, with a reference rate of 85.69%; a total of 46 test centers and 6,050 examination rooms were arranged.
The Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education organized 468 party members and cadres and faculty members and staff from 26 colleges and universities to work as liaisons in 235 sealing and control areas, and the transportation department arranged 2260 vehicles to pick up and drop off 2022 candidates from the sealing and control points; set up a special examination room for 1 confirmed patient in xi'an Chest Hospital, where he was treated, and sent 351 candidates in B and C isolation to the examination, involving 103 hotels.
Among them, 135,000 candidates registered for the examination at various examination centers in Xi'an, and due to the sudden impact of the epidemic, the education department arranged for 19,800 candidates to borrow the exam in 10 other cities in Shaanxi Province, arranged for 834 candidates stranded in Xi'an from other provinces, arranged for 2,736 candidates stranded in Xi'an in other cities in Shaanxi Province, and coordinated with 203 candidates stranded in other provinces and cities to borrow the exam in other provinces and cities. There are 118,500 candidates who should take the exam at all test centers in Xi'an, and 106,800 candidates who actually take the exam, with a reference rate of 90.08%, 2.22 percentage points higher than in 2020.
In addition, in order to ensure the smooth reference of candidates, the Shaanxi Provincial Education Examination Institute has opened 15 24-hour service hotlines, each test center school has opened more than 3 consultation telephones, set up nucleic acid testing points, and the examination staff accepted more than 2,500 difficulties and problems such as blocked examination travel, sudden changes in epidemic prevention codes, and emergency borrowing of examinations, and solved them one by one and returned to visit in a timely manner. Xi'an Automobile Vocational University organized 300 examination staff to send more than 200 quarantined candidates from 27 quarantined hotels of Chang'an University to their homes.
According to the article on the official website of the Department of Education of Shaanxi Province, the 2022 research and recruitment examination can be called the most difficult, most complex and most problem-facing examination in the history of Shaanxi. Liu Jianlin, director of the Department of Education of Shaanxi Province, said in an interview with the media that in less than a week, in the face of this large string of data, it is necessary to be safe, confidential, smooth and error-free, and its difficulty and complexity are indeed unprecedented.
Sealing is further upgraded
Xi'an's city-wide lockdown is not without warning. As early as the evening of December 18, two copies of the "Letter on Cooperation with Epidemic Prevention and Control" from the Office of the Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters of Yanta District of Xi'an City circulated online, and the two official letters were sent to the Xi'an Rail Transit Group and the Taxi Management Office of the Xi'an Municipal Transportation Bureau.
According to the above-mentioned letter, in view of the epidemic prevention and control situation in Yanta District, some areas in the district have been designated as medium-risk areas, and according to the needs of epidemic prevention and control work, Yanta District decided to adopt sealing and control management measures for some areas of the jurisdiction from 20:00 on December 18. Yanta District is one of the main urban areas of Xi'an, and the sealing and control area described in the letter is the core area of Yanta District, with a dense population and many government units and enterprises.
After the letter spread, some people rushed to the supermarket to purchase daily necessities in preparation for future needs. However, at about 11:30 p.m. on the evening of the 18th, the official WeChat public account of the Publicity Department of the Yanta District Party Committee "Today's Yanta" issued a notice saying, "The district epidemic prevention and control headquarters intends to control some areas, and the work is in the research and consultation stage." ”
This has led to all kinds of speculation. Among them, The Yanta District does not have the right to decide on its own to implement such a large-scale containment management measure.
The Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases stipulates that when a Class A or Class B infectious disease breaks out or becomes endemic, the local people's government at or above the county level may, upon a decision by the people's government at the level above, declare part or all of its administrative region to be an epidemic area;
This incident made many people vigilant and began to purchase reserve living materials one after another. To a certain extent, this reduces the impact on home life after the city's lockdown.
On the afternoon of December 22, after the news that Xi'an would "implement the management of epidemic prevention and control and comprehensively strengthen control measures" was released, a large number of people once poured into the supermarket to purchase materials, and some supermarkets were congested and out of stock.
In the evening, some media voiced and reiterated the core content of the afternoon press conference, including "the city's grain, oil, vegetables, eggs, milk and other supplies are sufficient, the price is basically stable", and reminded the general public that people should avoid gathering and reduce the risk of infection. The mood of the citizens gradually calmed down, after all, each family can go out every 2 days by 1 person to purchase daily necessities.
On the fourth day of the implementation of the city-wide lockdown measures, on December 26, Xi'an announced that it would upgrade and adjust the control measures again, "from 0:00 on the 27th, all residents will not leave their homes or gather except for participating in nucleic acid sampling as required." On the same day, the new local confirmed cases in Xi'an were announced on the 25th, which once again greatly refreshed the single-day new case record in this round of epidemic. This figure was 75 cases the previous day.
The control policy has been upgraded again, and the number of confirmed cases has continued to grow at a high level, and the situation is not optimistic.
Among the prevention and control measures implemented from 0:00 on December 27, Article 2 stipulates that "residents in the prevention area will continue to implement the original out-of-office procurement regulations after completing a new round of nucleic acid sampling and showing a negative festival, and each community should organize in an orderly manner and issue out-of-house vouchers at the wrong time." "But in subsequent practical implementation, this article has not been implemented, and there is no explicit notice to adjust this provision."
In difficult times, the original stranger neighbors have also begun to become acquainted, exchanging supplies and sending food to each other has become a social way in the epidemic. A medical worker who works in a women's and children's hospital will go to the supermarket every day after work and ask the neighbors in the owner group what items they need to buy on their behalf, and when she returns to the community, she will put them in the common area and collect them by other neighbors.
Although the official emphasis on adequate stocks of daily necessities, the supply to home was once difficult. When the 28 Japanese media broadcast the epidemic prevention and control press conference live, a large number of messages "Please arrange for the community to sell vegetables" appeared in the comment area. That night, the topic of "difficulty in selling vegetables in Xi'an" rushed to the Weibo hot search and became a hot spot in public opinion. As of the evening of December 31, the topic had 63,000 discussions and had been read by 340 million people.
Do your best to protect
For the voice of the people, the government department responded quickly.
On the evening of December 28, the general mobilization of Xi'an City organized the preparation of vegetables and other daily necessities to provide material support for the closed management community, so that the general public could calm down, stay at home, and prevent and control at home.
Among them, from 20:00 on the 28th, nine street offices in the new urban area of Xi'an City and the urban shed reform affairs center began to distribute vegetables free of charge to residents in the district. Street and community workers buy vegetables through channels such as wet markets and supermarkets, and then package them for residents to deliver to their hands.
Qujiang New District co-ordinated 4 large supermarkets (Yonghui Supermarket, Renrenle Supermarket, Hema Fresh, CR Vanguard) and 1 farmers' market (Chengshan Farm) to provide supplies, preparing 130 tons of meat, 70 tons of eggs, and 650 tons of vegetables. In the 15 communities in the district, 4 service centers are divided into four service centers at the same time, covering 130,000 households in the district. Overnight, according to the standard of 1 copy per household and 3 days of consumption, it is distributed in batches to ensure the basic livelihood of the masses.
In the early morning of January 1, residents of a small district in Xi'an lined up to receive free vegetables
Xixian New Area divides all community and village groups into three categories for market supply guarantee, implements the guarantee mode of staying at home, organizes dishes to be packed per household, sent to the community, and sent to each household by the community management volunteers; 587 communities and village groups are identified, and the supply enterprises directly distribute them to the community.
The Yanliang District Investment and Commerce Bureau organizes the transport of vegetables, meat, eggs and milk and other goods, and regularly releases civilian biological resources into the wholesale market; the street offices conduct a detailed survey of the inventory in the jurisdiction, fully mobilize the resources of farmers' markets, convenience stores, agricultural cooperatives and other parties, and prepare for overnight side dishes. Precisely organize distribution. Organize the service personnel of the five major supermarkets to set up a supermarket, community and property linkage distribution team in the form of orders through the network platform, and the street office organizes community staff to provide door-to-door service, according to the standard of 10 yuan per person per day, every two days to distribute vegetables free of charge to each household, and the community volunteers and the property are sent to the door of the residents to accurately distribute the needs of residents.
In view of migrant workers and temporarily distressed persons, civil affairs departments at all levels in Xi'an, as well as streets and communities, have carried out targeted social assistance work to solve the problem of basic living security for groups in difficulty. According to incomplete statistics, as of 14:00 on the 28th, Xi'an city rescued 4,253 people in need of all kinds, and issued temporary relief funds of 4.51 million yuan.
On December 30, the Shaanxi Provincial Education Examination Institute issued a warm letter to the 2022 candidates stranded in Xi'an, in which it was written: "Some people say that after the exam is over, they are separated and scattered, and they have been forgotten since then. However, every candidate who has been blocked by the return journey due to the epidemic and stranded in Xi'an has always touched our hearts, and in recent days, we have coordinated with the relevant departments of the provincial and municipal governments and 22 examination centers and colleges to properly solve the problem of food and accommodation difficulties for the 305 candidates collected. ”
"Tomorrow is new year 2022. Although the Xi'an people who are grounded at home in the haze of the epidemic have no intention of celebrating New Year's Day, they are undoubtedly luckier than the foreigners who come to Xi'an to study for graduate school. In the coming days of the New Year, we are more worried about the test takers stranded in Xi'an and the parents who accompany the exam, is it cold where you live, is it good to eat? The letter reads: "At this moment, please have difficulties in living security in the province of non-Xi'an city candidates, candidates from other provinces, pay attention to the QR code at the end of this letter, fill in your basic information online and the intention to coordinate to solve the problem of food and accommodation, we will collect in time and go all out to help you." ”
The worst is over
Strengthen the procurement of materials in various counties and districts, and distribute them to households day and night. At the 40th press conference on the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Xi'an on December 29, Chen Jianfeng, deputy director of the Xi'an Municipal Bureau of Commerce, introduced the measures taken to solve the problem of difficulty in buying vegetables.
These include the urgent mobilization of 38 commercial and trade enterprises with strong community distribution capabilities, the rapid cooperation with the government to carry out community distribution services, and the assistance in solving the problem of normal induction of employees. Chen Jianfeng said that after the escalation of the epidemic measures on December 27, there was indeed a situation of low attendance rate of employees and difficulties in logistics and distribution of supply enterprises.
Previously, some relevant personnel of the e-commerce platform said that they had only half of the attendance staff in one store, and the other half was sealed in different communities, and the company could only find a way to pick people up and live in the hotel. However, after staying in the hotel, the relevant departments asked personnel not to enter and leave. In addition, they have also encountered the case that when the delivery brother delivers across the district, he is stopped at the checkpoint in the customer's district because he only has the pass of the district where the store is located.
How to open up the infarction at the end of the supply chain, so that the delivery personnel are no longer difficult to meet, and the errand brother is no longer difficult to run, has become a top priority.
On the afternoon of December 31, Xi'an Held a Press Conference on the Prevention and Control of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic. At the meeting, it was reported that Xi'an adheres to the overall planning of the whole city and supervises the supply guarantee of various important materials throughout the process.
In view of the vegetable supply problems that the public is most concerned about, in the front end, organize 5 large vegetable wholesale markets to increase the supply of goods, ensure market supply, the city's daily vegetable market volume can reach about 13,000 tons, fully able to meet the needs of the city; in the middle end, open a green channel for vegetable transportation, ensure the normal operation of logistics enterprises, ensure the smooth distribution of vegetables; at the end, for supermarkets, logistics, distribution and other staff, determine risk-free arrangements to return to work as soon as possible, and "internal and external cooperation" with community front-line staff. Open up the service guarantee "last 100 meters".
"A thousand lines above, a needle below", the implementation and implementation of the policy, in the end, must rely on the grass-roots cadres and masses to organize and implement. As of now, statistical data show that in this round of the epidemic, Xi'an has sunk 64,000 cadres at all levels and mobilized 25,000 volunteers. These personnel are responsible for community nucleic acid testing, material distribution, order maintenance and other epidemic prevention and security matters.
However, compared with the work of ensuring the prevention and control of the epidemic and the basic operation of cities with a population of tens of millions, the above-mentioned personnel strength is stretched. In the early morning of December 30, a sinking cadre said that he had just received the nucleic acid testing materials to be used after dawn, and there would be a meeting next. In the first five days after the lockdown was activated, he could only sleep an average of one to two hours a day, "sleeping on the couch in the unit, and at least one-third of his colleagues slept in the unit." ”
In a community in Chang'an District, a total of 23 staff members, including property managers, cadres and volunteers, provided epidemic prevention and control, nucleic acid testing, and material support for 558 people from 268 households in the community. On December 30, after the vegetables were delivered to the community, some female residents petitioned in the owner group, saying that they could send their husbands to support the distribution of the households.
Residents of a small district in Chang'an District "donated" their husbands to volunteer and assisted the staff in distributing vegetables.
In order to support the frontline anti-epidemic work, in accordance with the requirements of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, from December 29, cadres under the age of 45 in provincial organs and enterprises and institutions (in addition to ensuring the operation of necessary work and those who are quarantined at home as required) have uniformly arranged to sink the frontline of xi'an to support the epidemic prevention and control work. According to a report by Shaanxi Daily on December 30, the first batch of more than 4,900 cadres of provincial government agencies, enterprises and institutions have sunk to the frontline of Xi'an communities to carry out epidemic prevention and control and material distribution.
At 0-24:00 on December 31, Xi'an reported 174 new locally confirmed cases, of which 35 cases were found through nucleic acid screening. The proportion of cases found by nucleic acid screening will be less than 30% for the first time since the closure, which is 20.11%.
However, academician Zhang Boli believed in an interview with health times that the decline in the number of positive cases detected by nucleic acid screening does not mean that there is an inflection point in the epidemic in Xi'an, "In addition to looking at the number of positive cases detected, it is more important to pay attention to how many positive cases are found in community testing, and how many are detected in centralized isolation." Based on past epidemic experience, the data may be repeated. If there are fewer hidden cases and community infections, it means that the community sporadic epidemic has been controlled, and the overall situation is expected to improve. ”
But in any case, with the passage of time, most people have gradually become calmer and calmer from the initial anxiety and even panic, the voices of different groups of people are being heard, and various demands are being solved. Although the city was still sealed, it began to become rhythmic and orderly. This may mean that the worst is over.