A resident prepares to undergo a nucleic acid test for the Covid-19 in Xi'an in China's northern Shaanxi province on January 4, 2022.
Image: STR / AFP
Every two days at the University of Xi’an in China, cleaners dressed in white hazmat suits taped tight to their bodies disinfect the dormitory hallways. Zhang Shengzi, a 24-year-old student, said the smell is so pungent she has to wait some time after they have gone before she will open her door again.
She can barely leave her room, let alone campus, and all her classes are online.
Zhang’s university, like the rest of Xi’an, has been under a citywide lockdown since Dec. 22. It is the longest lockdown in China since the first one in Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak began almost two years ago.
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