Dual epidemic threats are miring Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. As the city has been battling against the grave novel coronavirus, several reported cases of hemorrhagic fever, a natural epidemic disease with a high fatality rate, unnerved the public.
Local disease prevention and control departments and hospitals are facing challenges to combat the two epidemics, both contagious to humans. But this wave of COVID-19, characterized by the highly contagious Delta variant, is still the most prominent task, as the medical response strategy for hemorrhagic fever, which is commonly seen every year, has matured and compared with COVID-19, it is easier to diagnose and much weaker in terms of viral transmission.
Since the first COVID-19 case was reported on December 9, the city has registered 49 confirmed and eight asymptomatic cases. Over 16.2 million residents were given nucleic acid testing and a fresh round of tests will start on Tuesday.
Domestically transmitted cases that may have been triggered by an imported case from Pakistan have been reported in multiple districts and also involve a university. Cases in Xi'an that link to Dongguan, East China's Guangdong Province continue to increase, and sporadic cases were found to spill over to other regions, including Beijing, the National Health Commission said on Monday.
Meanwhile, to contain the emerging hemorrhagic fever, local CDC workers and hospitals are busy treating patients and distributing vaccines, which are the most effective measure to address the disease, media reports said.
