China ends 2021 with worst Covid-19 week since taming original epidemic

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a worker prepares bags of vegetables to be delivered to households under closed-off management in Xi'an, in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, Dec. 29, 2021. Chinese officials promised steady deliveries of groceries to residents of Xi'an, an ancient capital with 13 million people, that is currently under the strictest lockdown of a major Chinese city since Wuhan was shut early last year at the start of the pandemic. - AP

BEIJING, Jan 1 (Reuters): China ended its final week of 2021 with its biggest tally of local coronavirus cases for any seven-day period since subduing the country's first epidemic nearly two years ago, despite an arsenal of some of the world's toughest Covid-19 measures.

The National Health Commission reported on Saturday 175 new community infections with confirmed clinical symptoms for Dec. 31, bringing the total number of local symptomatic cases in mainland China in the past week to 1,151.