China’s COVID cases are on the rise again with the majority of new cases reported in the country’s northwestern city of Xian despite its fifth day of lockdown to curb the spread.

As of Sunday, there were 150 local symptomatic cases reported in the region whereas some 155 cases were reported a day earlier.

Although the numbers are low compared to other countries across the globe, the local government of Xian is strict about it by imposing a travel ban inside and out of the town.

The number of confirmed cases in Xian is about 635 in a city of 13 million people, according to Reuters.

However, despite the number of reported cases, no case of the Omicron variant has been reported yet.

Across mainland China, about 162 domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported on Sunday which was an increase from the previous 158 cases a day earlier but no fatalities were reported as of Sunday.

The new case number marks the highest count of local symptomatic infections since the daily bulletin provided by the National Health Commission started to classify asymptomatic carriers separately from the end-March, 2020.

Since the start of the global pandemic, mainland China had about 101,277 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including domestically transmitted ones as well as those found among international travelers the number of fatalities is about 4,636 according to Reuters.

The Xian authorities are so strict about the new cases of COVID-19 that traveling out of the city would require approval from employers or local authorities.

Households can only send one person to shop for necessities every two days while other family members may not leave home unless they have essential jobs or urgent matters to cater to and must also be approved by employers or local authorities.

However, the city has commenced a city-wide disinfection campaign requiring health personnel to spray pathogen-killing solutions on surfaces of roads and buildings.

However, residents are advised to abstain from touching surfaces, objects, and even plants after the disinfection rounds.

The local authority also commenced a new round of mass testing on Monday while urging residents to stay at home unless their samples have been collected.

Elsewhere, the city of Xianyang and Weinan, both of which are situated in the Shaanxi province, where Xian is also based – both reported one local symptomatic case respectively on Sunday.

Another region where cases of infections were found includes Guangxi as well as the province of Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Sichuan.