Beijing testing 2 M people to stem virus outbreak

BEIJING (AFP) – Beijing yesterday kicked off a drive to test two million people in 48 hours as the city rushed to snuff out a new local cluster of cases believed to be linked to a more contagious virus variant.

Long queues snaked through the Chinese capital – which reported 19 coronavirus cases in the past week – as the mass testing campaign got under way in Dongcheng and Xicheng districts.

The two downtown districts include Tiananmen Square and several government ministry offices, and are home to around two million residents.

AFP saw one testing line stretch over 1,300 feet, with around a thousand people waiting to be tested.

”I received the notification this morning and thought I’d come during lunch hour; but there are so many people here in line,” one Dongcheng resident said.

Officials plan to complete the testing by Saturday, and with the Lunar New Year holiday looming – typically a time when hundreds of millions travel across the country to visit families – they are keen to avoid a fully fledged outbreak in Beijing.

Locals have complained about long wait times in freezing temperatures, with social media users yesterday saying queues for tests were “unending” as residents braved the winter chill to get swabbed.

”I queued for three hours and finally got tested,” one user said on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform.

The Xicheng district government said in a social media notice yesterday that some of the confirmed cases had been into the area and there was an “increased risk” of infections.