Health Times Tan Qixin
According to the latest announcement of the Shaanxi Provincial Health Commission on January 3, since December 9, 2021, Shaanxi Province has reported a total of 1,690 locally confirmed cases, including 1,663 cases in Xi'an. At 0-24:00 on January 2, of the 92 new locally confirmed cases reported in the province, 90 cases were reported in Xi'an, and this is also the first time that the new local confirmed cases in Xi'an have exceeded 100 for 8 consecutive days.
Since December 21, 2021, Xi'an has launched six rounds of nucleic acid testing in the city, and as of now, nucleic acid testing for key populations in key areas is still in progress.
Xi'an citizens conduct nucleic acid testing at nucleic acid testing points. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Xiao.
It has spilled over to 4 provinces and 7 places, where did this round of epidemic come from?
According to the epidemic reports issued by various places, the Health Times reporter combed and found that the epidemic situation in Xi'an has spilled over to 7 places in Shaanxi Province, including Yan'an City, Xianyang City, Weinan City, Beijing, Dongguan City in Guangdong Province, Shenqiu City in Henan Province, and Yuncheng City in Shanxi Province. At present, in order to prevent the continued spillover of cases, Shaanxi Province has suspended 76% of inter-provincial lines, cancelled all domestic flights, and currently retains only international passenger and cargo flights and important transport and transfer tasks.
Where did this outbreak come from? On the afternoon of December 27, 2021, at the press conference on epidemic prevention and control in Shaanxi Province, it was introduced that the Shaanxi Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention has completed the whole gene sequencing of 137 locally confirmed cases, all of which are highly homologous to the imported cases reported by pakistan's inbound flights on December 4 of that year.
According to the shaanxi provincial health commission, the first confirmed case in Xi'an was sent to a passenger room who had performed a positive nucleic acid test in Islamabad-Xi'an (diversion flight) in Pakistan, and was found to be positive in a nucleic acid test once every other day. Zhang Mou, a colleague who lived with Xiang, was also diagnosed on December 13, 2021. However, this chain of transmission has not been extended any longer.
The second transmission chain comes from Guo Mou, a staff member of an outpatient pharmacy, but judging from the circulation information released by the "Xi'an Release", Guo mou has not intersected with the pk854 personnel of the inbound flight, and this communication chain has not yet developed.
The third transmission chain is the transmission chain of Chang'an University, which has a clear transmission path in the early stage, and is the concentrated outbreak point of this round of local epidemics.
Zhang Yi, director of the Institute of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control of the Shaanxi Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview with Shaanxi Daily that the "culprit" of the new crown virus involved in the epidemic in Xi'an city belongs to the Delta variant strain, so the number of infected people is relatively large, showing the characteristics of high viral load, fast transmission speed, relatively insidious disease, strong infectivity, etc., and it is difficult to check close contact and sub-close connection.
When will the inflection point of the epidemic come?
"The recent increase in cases is mainly due to the city's increased intensity of large-scale nucleic acid screening, starting from December 21 last year, several rounds of nucleic acid screening have been carried out, resulting in more hidden cases, and the current round of epidemic cases found through nucleic acid screening accounts for 1/3 of the cases." Wei Xiaoli, deputy director of the Xi'an Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference on the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Xi'an.
In the first three rounds of nucleic acid screening in Xi'an, the number of positive people detected continued to be at a high level, the third round of detection of 400 people, the fourth round of nucleic acid screening detected 122 people, the nucleic acid screening launched on December 30 last year, detected 77 positive cases, the number of positive cases began to decline significantly.
Does this mean that the inflection point of the epidemic in Xi'an has arrived? "From the current situation, the number of positive nucleic acid screenings detected in recent days has remained high, and there is still a certain proportion of cases detected from the community, and the risk of community transmission still exists." Yang Lianchang, member of the party group and deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Health Commission, said at a press conference on the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on December 31, 2021 that the local epidemic situation in Xi'an is still in a critical stage of confrontation.
According to the information on the circulation of new confirmed cases released by the Xi'an Municipal Health Commission on January 1, the reporter found that of the 122 confirmed cases, a total of 16 cases were found in nucleic acid screening, and the rest were found in key sealing and control areas or among the close contacts of confirmed cases. Among them, the confirmed cases 18, 20-22, 41-43, 57, 58, 60, 104-106 all lived in high-tech foreign exchange community and were found during the centralized isolation period; the confirmed cases 24, 29, 32-34, 36 and 66 lived in Dongwoli Village, Xixian New District, Xi'an City, and were found during the centralized isolation period.
Can I still go home for the Chinese New Year?
According to the Notice on Effectively Doing a Good Job in Traffic Control and Transport Guarantee work in Xi'an and Other Key Areas in Response to the COVID-19 Epidemic issued on 30 December 2021, road passenger transport services in and out of Xi'an City will be strictly suspended, and cross-city bus, cross-city taxi (including online ride-hailing) business, cross-city ride-hailing business and daily socialized urban passenger transport services will be suspended.
During the control period, guide relevant personnel not to enter Xi'an unnecessarily, minimize the flow of people, and strictly prevent the spread of the epidemic through transportation. Except for vehicles transporting emergency supplies and key personnel to Xi'an, other vehicles are not allowed to enter and leave Xi'an in principle.
Now that xi'an is on the 12th day of closed management, "if you can, the most important thing is to go home for a reunion year." Zhang Jie told reporters that he was also worried that even if the Xi'an festival was unsealed before the festival, according to the epidemic prevention regulations of various places, even if he could go home, the Spring Festival holiday might have to be spent in isolation.
"I'm ready to not be able to go home for the Spring Festival, but I should give my parents a video and hope they can rest assured that I'm doing well here." Li Fei said.
