Xi'an will lockdown areas and shut schools if an outbreak poses a "severe threat", according to an emergency response plan published on Wednesday, reports BBC.

However, several netizens described the plan as 'excessive'.

China was battered by COVID-19 outbreak in recent times, specially after it ended its Zero-COVID policy, amid protests by locals.

In recent times, flu cases increased in the country after the latest COVID-19 wave receded.

While there is no suggestion of an imminent lockdown in Xi'an, some have expressed fears that its plan could see a return to the zero-Covid approach, reports BBC.

One person wrote on Chinese social media platform Weibo that influenza outbreaks had always been common before Covid, but "life went on as per normal" when they hit.

Another remarked that some local governments were "addicted to sealing and controlling", the British media reported.

"To local residents who were traumatised by the lockdown measures not long ago, the return to the same draconian method in coping with flu outbreaks is by no means justified," Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the BBC.