China puts 13 million residents in lockdown ahead of Games

BEIJING (AP) — Under orders not to leave home unless necessary, the 13 million residents of the northern Chinese city of Xi’an are adjusting to a lockdown imposed after a spike in coronavirus cases. The measure comes just weeks before the country hosts the Winter Olympics in Beijing. There’s no word on whether the virus was the newly surging omicron variant or the far more common delta. China has recorded just seven omicron cases. The Xi’an restrictions are some of the harshest since China in 2020 imposed a strict lockdown on more than 11 million people in and around the central city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019. Xi’an on Thursday reported another 63 cases, bringing the total to at least 211.