Chinese city suggests lockdowns for flu, faces criticism

A Chinese city has received negative feedback on social media after saying it might consider using lockdowns in the case of an influenza outbreak, CNN reported. Last week, the city of Xi’an, a popular tourist destination in Shaanxi province and the location of the world-famous terracotta warriors, unveiled an emergency response plan that would allow it to close down businesses, schools, and “other crowded locations” in the event of a serious flu outbreak. This led to a mixture of worry and rage among many social media users who claimed the plan uncomfortably resembled parts of the stringent zero-Covid policies Beijing had put in place throughout the pandemic and which have just lately been abandoned. A report published in CNN said that on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, a person argued that it would be better to vaccinate the populace rather than take the opportunity to incite fear. Another person questioned, “How would people not panic considering that Xi’an’s suggestion to halt business and work activities was issued without specific guidance on the national level to identify the disease? Although the number of Covid cases in China is declining, the number of flu cases has increased nationwide, and some pharmacies are finding it difficult to keep up with the demand for flu medications. The emergency action plan for Xi’an won’t always be used though. Instead, it describes four levels of severity for future outbreaks and how the city of nearly 13 million people will respond to each. At the first and highest level, “The city can lock down affected regions, implement traffic quarantines, and suspend production and economic activity.” Furthermore, crowded areas including malls, theatres, libraries, museums, tourist destinations, and other gathering places will remain shut. At this degree of emergency, all schools and nurseries would be closed, and they would be in charge of monitoring the health of the children and students. The response comes as Be