Businesses, schools closed as Covid-19 infections increase
CHINA’S capital has warned that it is facing its most severe test of the Covid19 pandemic.
It has shut businesses and schools in hard-hit districts and tightened rules for entering the city as infections ticked higher in Beijing and nationally.
The country is fighting numerous Covid-19 flare ups, from Zhengzhou in central Henan province to Chongqing in the southwest. It reported 26 824 new local cases for Sunday, nearing the country’s daily infection peak in April.
It also recorded two deaths in Beijing, up from one on Saturday, which was China’s first since late May.
Guangzhou, a southern city of nearly 19 million people that is battling the largest of China’s recent outbreaks, ordered a five-day lockdown for Baiyun, its most populous district. It also suspended dine-in services and shut nightclubs and theatres in the city’s main business district.
The latest wave is testing China’s resolve to stick to adjustments it has made to its zero-covid-19 policy which calls for cities to be more targeted in their clampdown measures and steer away from widespread lockdowns and testing that have strangled the economy and frustrated residents.
Asian share markets and oil prices slipped on Monday amid investor concern over the economic fallout from the intensifying Covid-19 situation in China, with the risk aversion benefiting bonds and the dollar.
Beijing reported 962 new infections on Sunday, up from 621 a day earlier, and a further 316 cases for the first 15 hours of yesterday.
City authorities said people who arrived in the capital from elsewhere in China would need to undergo three days of testing before they would be permitted to leave their homes or accommodation.
Residents in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, home to 3.5 million people, as well as embassies and office complexes, were urged to stay home, with schools going online. Streets were quiet, and shops, other than those selling groceries, appeared to be mostly shut. Restaurants were empty but for one or two staff at entrances around small tables showing “takeout only” signs.
Several Chinese cities began cutting routine community Covid-19 testing last week, including the northern city of Shijiazhuang, which became the subject of fervent speculation that it could be a test bed for policy relaxation. But late on Sunday, Shijiazhuang announced it would conduct mass testing in six of its eight districts over the next five days after new daily local cases hit 641. It also encouraged residents to shop online and ordered some schools to suspend in-person teaching.
China’s recent efforts to make its curbs more targeted have sparked investor hopes of a more significant easing, even as China faces its first winter battling the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Many analysts expect such a shift to begin only in March or April, however with the government arguing that President Xi Jinping’s signature zero-covid-19 policy saves lives and is necessary to prevent the healthcare system being overwhelmed.