Testing expands as fears grow
Beijing will conduct mass testing of most of its 21 million people, with a new Covid-19 outbreak sparking stockpiling of food by residents worried about the possibility of a Shanghai-style lockdown.
The Chinese capital had begun mass testing people in one of its 16 districts, where most of the new cases have been found. City authorities have also imposed lockdowns on individual residential buildings and one section of the city.
Officials say testing will be expanded to all but five outlying districts.
While only 70 cases have been found since the outbreak surfaced last Friday, authorities have rolled out strict measures under China’s ‘‘zero-Covid’’ approach, to try to prevent a further spread of the virus.
Some Beijing residents are working from home, and many have stocked up on food as a safeguard against the possibility that they could be confined indoors, as has happened in multiple cities, including the financial hub of Shanghai.
The cities of Anyang, in central China, and Dandong, on the border with North Korea, yesterday became the latest to start lockdowns as the Omicron variant spreads across the vast country of 1.4 billion people.
Shanghai, which has been locked down for more than two weeks, reported more than 19,000 new infections and 51 deaths in the latest 24-hour period.
Testing sites have been set up at residential complexes and office buildings across Beijing’s sprawling Chaoyang district, where most of the cases have been found. Residents and workers have been lining up at the temporary outdoor stations for a free throat swabs by workers in full protective gear.
Beijing residents have been snapping up rice, noodles, vegetables and other food items as long lines form at supermarkets and store workers hastily restock empty shelves. State media has issued reports saying supplies remain plentiful despite the buying surge.
Shanghai has buckled under a strict lockdown that has driven residents to band together to get food delivered through group buying. Goods have backed up at the port of Shanghai, affecting supplies and factory production and putting a crimp on economic growth.