Beijing shuts malls, parks as COVID cases climb

BEIJING • Beijing shut parks, shopping malls and museums on Tuesday while more Chinese cities resumed mass testing for COVID-19, as China fights a spike in cases, deepening concerns about its economy and dampening hopes for a quick post-coronavirus reopening.

China reported 28,127 new local cases nationally for Monday, nearing its daily peak from April, with infections in the southern city of Guangzhou and the southwestern municipality of Chongqing accounting for about half of the total.

In Beijing, cases are hitting fresh highs each day, prompting calls from the city’s government for more residents to stay put.

There were two new deaths attributed to COVID-19 by health officials, compared with three over the weekend, which were China’s first since May.

The latest wave is testing recent adjustments China has made to its ZERO-COVID policy, which asks authorities to be more targeted in their clampdown measures and steer away from the widespread lockdowns and testing that have strangled the economy and frustrated residents.

The municipality of Tianjin, near Beijing, on Tuesday became the latest to order citywide testing, after a similar announcement on Sunday by Shijiazhuang.

Even after the tweaked guidelines, China remains a global outlier with its strict COVID restrictions, including borders that remain all but shut nearly three years into the pandemic.

Tightening measures in Beijing and other cities, even as China tries to avoid citywide lockdowns such as the one that crippled Shanghai this year, have renewed investor worries over the economy and prompted global stocks and oil prices to slip overnight.

The Chinese capital on Monday warned that it is facing its most severe test of the pandemic and tightened rules for entering the city, requiring arrivals from elsewhere in China to undergo three days of COVID testing before they are permitted to leave their accommodation.

Numerous Beijing residents have seen their buildings locked down, although those restrictions often last just a few days.

Some city residents said they had experienced delays in grocery deliveries, because of heavy volumes.

Many museums were closed and venues such as the Happy Valley amusement park and the city’s vast Chaoyang Park said on Tuesday they would shut due to the outbreak. Beijing reported 1,438 new local cases, up from 962 on Sunday.

The central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first discovered, issued a notice on Tuesday urging its residents to only travel between home and work.

Vice-premier Sun Chunlan, who has spearheaded China’s ZERO-COVID policy, visited Chongqing on Monday and urged authorities there to adhere to the measures and bring the outbreak under control, the municipality said.