Residents of Xian are slowly but surely running out of food supplies as the mandatory lockdown measure and other restrictive measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 enter its eighth day.

According to earlier reports gotten from the National Health Commission has it that there were some 156 new locally transmitted cases reported in China on Wednesday which was an increase from 151 the previous day.

Out of the new number of cases, about 155 of them were in Xian alone while the only one remaining southern region of Guangxi.

In addition, 51 of the cases were imported apart from the local transmissions.

In Xian, there are about 13 million residents, and the current number of cases has increased to about 1,117 since December 9th.

The local authorities have also commenced a new round of mass testing that starts at 10 am on Thursday as well as all outings in the city, which is known for its Terracotta Warriors.

In order to curb the spread, local authorities mandated that only one individual can be allowed from each household every two days to buy essentials.

The government has not yet declared when the policy will be reinstated. The government has not declared when this policy will be reinstated.

As of now, a report has it that residents have now run out of vegetables and other foods. Also, residents have all taken to the internet to voice their concerns about their current state of dissatisfaction with the mandatory local law.

One commenter named Skinny said, “This is getting more and more ridiculous, I never thought in my lifetime I would be unable to sleep because of not having food to eat.”

Shengquanlieshou said that a lack of food supply during the initial Wuhan breakdown and lockdown was quite different compared to the current state.

The deputy head of the Xian Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Chen Jianfeng in a press conference narrated the main reason for the difficulty in making food purchases – relating it to the shortage of workers in the delivery industry.

Previously, the Xian government has promised to make every effort to ensure the supply of essentials.

Another person who held a press conference was HC inspector He Qinghua who said that Xian was still in a rapid development phase and that cases were spilling out of the province.

The risk of community transmission from subsequent outbreaks remains high. Sensitive personnel screening and control measures needed to be further strengthened.

The Xian is said to have originated with a passenger flight hailing from Pakistan before spreading out to six cities in five provinces.

Shi Bingyin who is the former dean of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xian Jiao Tong University made it known to Shaanxi Daily, “the chain of transmission is not clear so far, but the basic point [is] it is an imported outbreak, the source of the disease was from abroad”.

“Most of the confirmed cases found were also very mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, detected during mass screening instead of them going to hospitals after discovering symptoms, which we call hidden transmission, and as far as I know, there were only a few cases of severe disease. The situation facing Xian now is not as tense as the situation facing Wuhan last year,” Shi said.