Chinese authorities locked down more cities on Jan. 18 in an effort to curb the spread of the CCP virus. Several others were upgraded from medium- to high-risk for virus spread—meaning residents were required to take nucleic acid tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Meanwhile, food prices have skyrocketed, especially in cities under lockdown. Prices were at least 50 percent higher than in cities not under strict quarantine policies.
Tight Control
On Jan. 18, Xinle city in Hebei Province announced that all supermarkets, grocery stores, and shops must close. Residents wouldn’t be allowed to leave their homes.
The city has a population of about 517,000.
Local authorities didn’t explain the reason for the lockdown, nor announce new COVID-19 cases.
One local said in an online post on social media platform Weibo that a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak escalated quickly, causing the city to go under lockdown. The netizen added that many medical staff and patients at the Xinle Chinese Medicine Hospital were infected, but authorities hadn’t announced them.
The Epoch Times couldn’t independently verify the information; the netizen’s post was shortly removed from the internet.
An employee at a hotel near the hospital told the Chinese-language Epoch Times in a Jan. 18 phone interview that his facility was serving medical staff who had arrived from other cities to assist in treating local COVID-19 patients.
An employee at another local hotel said his venue had been converted into a quarantine center several days ago, and that no hotels in the city were currently open to the public.
