Empty streets in Beijing as Shanghai vows to ease curbs

BEIJING: Millions of Beijing residents stayed home on Friday stepping out only for Covid-19 tests even as a top official in locked down Shanghai said the city aims to gradually ease traffic restrictions and open shops after reaching zero-covid transmission at the community level in the next few days.

Beijing, a city of around 22 million, started three new rounds of mass nucleic acid testing in 12 districts from Friday as the city government attempts to stamp out an ongoing Omicronled outbreak.

On Friday, Beijing authorities said they were investigating a woman for allegedly fabricating “rumours” that the city will enter a three-day lockdown, after the claim prompted panic buying across the capital a day before.

Beijing police said in a statement on social media that they have launched an investigation into a woman surnamed Yao.

The 38-year-old “fabricated and published the relevant rumours”, the statement said, adding that police have taken “criminal compulsory measures” against her, which could mean detention, arrest or home surveillance.

A Beijing government spokesperson had clarified on Thursday that authorities were only calling on residents to “reduce personnel flows to cut off the transmission chain of the virus, assuring that the city’s routine operation and the supply of daily necessities will not be affected”.

Shanghai, meanwhile, could soon see some easing from the weeks-long lockdown that’s kept most of its 25 million residents indoors - a promise that’s been made before but not fulfilled because of fresh cases.

“Shanghai aims to reach the goal of reporting zero new Covid-19 cases at the community

level by mid-may and social life including public traffic, shops and schools will resume gradually in an orderly manner,” Shanghai vice mayor Wu Qing said. The goal in Shanghai is to achieve “elimination in society”, meaning any new cases would only be in people in isolation, Wu added.