Millions in Beijing urged to work from home to fight Covid
The streets of Beijing's business district were deserted on Thursday as the government called for people to return to work remotely, with scores of subway stations shut after a national holiday muted by coronavirus curbs.
Chinese authorities have stuck to their zero-Covid policy of lockdowns and mass testing as they battle the biggest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic, with entire neighbourhoods in the capital sealed over handfuls of infections.
Beijing reported 50 local cases on Thursday, a day after it said people in Chaoyang, its most populous district, should work from home.
Those among the district's 3.5 million residents who needed to visit their offices were encouraged to drive themselves and avoid gatherings.
At least one other Beijing district has also encouraged residents to work from home, while dozens of subway stations across the capital remained closed. Open restaurants offer only takeaway.
But Feng Yinhao, a massage parlour employee in Chaoyang district, said Beijing was "still normal" compared to the country's largest city, Shanghai.
Authorities have been treading cautiously since an extended lockdown in the southern finance hub led to food shortages and public anger. "Residents can accept the situation now," Zhan Jun, a man living in Chaoyang, told AFP.
But "if things are like in Shanghai... if it's too severe, things will sound different."
Shanghai-epicentre of the latest outbreak-reported more than 4,600 mostly asymptomatic infections on Thursday and 13 more deaths.
The call to work from home followed an unusually quiet Labour Day holiday, with the capital stepping up Covid testing requirements for entering public spaces, discouraging travel and shutting down gyms.