Xi'an ensures food, medicine supply amid COVID-19 resurgence

XI'AN, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Xi'an, a northwestern Chinese city hit by a recent COVID-19 resurgence, has been making all-out efforts to ensure sufficient food and medicine supplies for its 13 million people who have been under lockdown for over a week.

The government of Shaanxi Province, of which Xi'an is the capital, vowed on Thursday to ensure adequate supplies of daily necessities, improve the supply system involving wholesale markets, supermarkets and convenience stores in communities, and facilitate the smooth flow of vehicles used for supporting people's livelihoods.

Xi'an has spared no effort to prepare and deliver essential food items. On Wednesday, staff from the Huzhu Road community in Beilin District delivered packages of fresh vegetables to local residents.

"Top priority will be given to those facing difficulties such as disabled people. More vegetables will soon be distributed across the whole community," said Liu Saihua, director of the community.

With the help of four supermarkets and one farm produce market, Qujiang New District prepared 130 tonnes of meat, 70 tonnes of eggs and 650 tonnes of vegetables for its 130,000 residents.

Due to factors such as traffic control measures and insufficient delivery personnel, different residential communities may receive their supplies at different times.

While waiting anxiously, many citizens expressed their understanding. Li Hui, a 40-year-old Xi'an citizen, received his food package on Thursday night. "I got vegetables, chicken and pork," Li said.

In Xixian New Area, many residential apartments have set up WeChat groups in which residents can place orders for over 30 kinds of vegetables and several medicines. Currently, more than 1,600 WeChat groups have been established, covering 195 communities and 96 villages, nearly half of the total in Xixian, according to the management committee of Xixian New Area.

Xixian New Area has allocated government vegetable reserves and supplies from local vegetable bases to 88 enterprises on the supply chain including supermarkets. They can directly deliver packaged daily necessities and medicine to residential compounds in lockdown, where community staff and volunteers distribute the packages to each household.

It has also set up 10 medical teams to provide in-person or remote diagnosis and treatment services for people who have been confined to their homes. A 24-hour hotline has also been launched to respond to the needs of citizens.

In the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, help has poured in from all corners of China. On Wednesday night, a train carrying 158.2 tonnes of food including flour, rice and vegetables arrived in Xi'an. The food supplies were donated by a district of Shaanxi's Yulin City.

A villager in east China's Shandong Province donated 50,000 kg of Chinese cabbages, and three others from Shandong offered 20 tonnes of onions to the people of Xi'an free of charge.

Xi'an, home to the world-famous Terracotta Warriors, reported 161 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of local cases to 1,277 in the latest outbreak that began on Dec. 9, according to the provincial health committee.

Authorities in Xi'an tightened their epidemic control and prevention measures on Monday, ordering all residents to stay indoors and avoid gatherings except when taking nucleic acid tests, in an attempt to break the transmission chain.