BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Reuters) – The Chinese city of Xi’an was locked for a fifth day on Monday, with officials reporting 150 new local symptoms of the corona virus on Sunday, slightly lower than the previous day.

Case numbers in Zion, home to 13 million people, are small compared to many clusters abroad, but authorities have imposed strict restrictions on leaving the city under Beijing’s urge to control the eruption immediately.

Dec. Authorities have not reported any infections caused by the Omicron variant in Xian with 635 confirmed corona virus cases during the 9-26 period. Sunday saw 150 local symptom cases, most of the 162 new domestic infections in China, compared to 155 the day before.

Sine reported a total of 158 locally spread symptom cases on Sunday.

Across the country, China has detected international travelers and a handful of Omigran infections in southern China.

The new case number for Sunday marks the nationwide number of local symptomatic infections since the daily bulletin issued by the National Health Commission began classifying asymptomatic carriers separately by the end of March 2020.

In Xian, residents cannot leave the city without the consent of employers or local authorities.

From December 23, only one person per two days will be allowed to send essential items. Other family members should not leave the home unless they take care of essential work or urgent matters approved by employers or communities.

On Monday, Xian officials urged residents to stay indoors except to gather at a new round-the-city test.

Xian launched a disinfectant campaign throughout the city, with workers spraying disinfectant solutions on roads and buildings, and residents were advised not to touch plants or building surfaces.

Tongyan Jin, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, said mass disinfection of outdoor air and surfaces is unnecessary, and that people are less likely to catch COVID-19 from outdoor surfaces or air.

“It kills mosquitoes with cannon,” Jin said, however he believes it is necessary to disinfect the inner surfaces, especially in areas visited by infected people.

Cities like Xianyang and Wenan, like Jian in Shanxi Province, each filed a local symptom case on Sunday. Local infections were also found in the Guangxi region and Zhejiang, Guangdong and Sichuan provinces.

Reported by Roxanne Liu and Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Kenneth Maxwell and Raju Gopalakrishnan

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