Jan 14, Kathmandu-In China, people infected with COVID-19 have to forcefully live in cramped metal cells. Videos of quarantine camps are becoming viral on social media.

China and its first Covid-19 outbreak were mostly under control by a combination of lockdowns, border closures, and mass testing. But a COVID-19 increase in certain key cities only weeks before the Beijing Winter Olympics is causing great alarm for the country.

A few residents of cities under siege told the BBC about their plight. Thereby, claiming they were part of a “big transfer” of thousands of people to the camps. Pregnant women, children, and the elderly have also been sent to camps in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, Central China. They forcefully have to stay for up to two weeks.

According to the Daily Mail, 20 million people in China have been restricted to their homes. Also, they are unable to leave their homes even to buy food. 5.5 million people in China’s Anyang shut down late Monday, according to the Mail. It was after Anyang reported two cases of the omicron variant.

On Monday, Xi’an reported 13 additional confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, according to a Xinhua article. During the recent comeback, the city had recorded 2,017 local cases. By Monday, 417 of them had recovered.

According to Lyu Yongpeng, deputy head of the city’s health commission, the city began a new round of mass testing in important locations at 9 a.m. Tuesday to help stop the virus from spreading further.

Xi’an decreased the categories of five areas from medium-risk to low-risk for COVID-19 on Saturday. There are now three high-risk zones and 55 medium-risk areas in the city. Meanwhile, a prominent epidemiologist predicts that the number of COVID-19 cases in Xi’an will not rise dramatically again.