BEIJING, (Reuters) – China reports fewer COVID patients on Friday. Several cities in China have curbed movement. A top official also warned hospitals against turning away patients following a miscarriage that occurred during a lockdown at the city of Xian.

China’s domestically transmitted diseases with clinical signs were reported at 116, mostly in Xian province and Henan. That is down from 132 a single day earlier. Official data was released on Friday.

Xian in north China is a 13-million population city. It entered 16th day lockdown. Officials said that the epidemic had been contained. Xian lies in Shaanxi Province, bordering Henan.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted Li Qun as saying that the risk of a large-scale reprise of the (Xian?) outbreak was “largely contained”. This statement was published in a late Thursday story.

Residents have voiced their dismay at the lockdown in Xian. They also complained of reduced access to health care. A story about a pregnant lady who was forced to wait for more than two hours outside a hospital caused anger among Chinese social media platforms and resulted in punishments of local officials.

Sun Chunlan, the Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan stated that she felt “deeply ashamed” by people’s inability to secure hospital services in Xian.

Sun said that “Medical institutions… should not just turn away patients during COVID control.”

Friday’s announcement by the city government reaffirmed a requirement that residents who have not been able to prove that they had received a negative blood test within 48 hours are allowed to leave their residences to be admitted to hospital.

The incidences of Omicron in China are still very low compared to other places. However, the Omicron variant is highly transmissible and has not been announced in Henan or Xian. Local governments however have maintained a high degree of vigilance.

China’s policies of stopping clusters spreading has become more pressing in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics. They will be held in Beijing and Hebei provinces beginning February 4. The Lunar New Year holiday season begins in less than 2 weeks.

On Thursday there were no more deaths, so the death toll remained at 4,636. As of January 6, there were 103,295 cases with symptomatic symptoms in China. This includes both imported and local ones.