City of terracotta warriors sees spate of rodent-borne fever incidences

Xi'an, capital of northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, is seeing more cases of hemorrhagic fever, adding to the health woes in a city with a recent outbreak of the coronavirus.

"Hemorrhagic fever, a common infectious disease, is transmitted from rats to people, but won't spread from people to people," Shi Shaofei, chief of the public health department of the health bureau in the city's Huyi District, said on Sunday, indicating there is no need to panic and refuting a widespread online rumor about transmission of the sickness from eating strawberries.

Shi pointed out there are certain characteristics of the disease, and it happened to peak a little more than usual this year, but it is not as serious as what was being bandied about on the Internet.

Excessive rainfall during a long flood season this year has caused rats to spread as their habitat had been damaged, according to Shi. Wiping out rats, keeping the environment clean, and getting vaccinated are major methods to prevent and control the disease.

October to January and April to June each year are the two peak periods for hemorrhagic fever in Shaanxi Province, medical experts from the local health commission said. Early symptoms are similar to the flu. People with such symptoms are advised to go to the hospital as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, 43 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported in Shaanxi on Monday, of which 42 were in Xi'an. The province has had 96 confirmed cases since December 9, with 91 reported in Xi'an.