China quarantined the city of Xi’an in the western part of the country on Thursday to curb an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

This marks the most significant precautionary step the Beijing administration has taken since the pandemic in Wuhan. It highlights how the country’s ‘zero tolerance’ approach works since the virus was discovered nearly two years ago.

Thirteen million people living in Xi’an city were told to stay at home and assign only one person to go out for necessities. This instruction led to quarrels over access to food products. Going out of the city is prohibited unless necessary.

According to the news in the official news agency Xinhua, it was noted that this decision was taken after the second wave of intense Covid tests revealed 127 cases spread across 14 districts of the city. The increasing number of cases emerged at a time when China was preparing for the winter Olympic Games, which will increase travel due to holidays, and the athletes and their accompanying people will come to the country intensively.

China is now preparing for a faster-spreading variant of Omicron, which is said to surpass immunity from vaccines or previous infection.