China’s vast Xinjiang hit with COVID-19 travel restrictions

The sprawling Xinjiang region in western China has been hit with sweeping COVID-19 travel restrictions as the government ratchets up control measures across the country ahead of a key Communist Party congress later this month.
According to Chinese media reports, trains and buses in and out of the region of 22 million people have been suspended, and passenger numbers on flights have been reduced to 75% of capacity in recent days.
A notice from the regional government on Tuesday said the measures were enacted to “strictly prevent the risk of spillover” of the virus. A Xinjiang official apologized for the spread of the epidemic to other regions and provinces in China, particularly in recent days.
As is often the case with China’s draconian “zero-COVID” policy, the measures seemed out of proportion to the number of cases detected. The National Health Commission announced Thursday that 97 cases had been recorded in Xinjiang in the latest 24-hour period, after 91 cases were reported the previous day. All of them were asymptomatic.