Faced with the possibility of a Shanghai-style lockdown and the recent spike in Covid cases that have sparked food stockpiling by worried residents, Beijing will conduct mass testing of almost three-quarters of its 21 million people, authorities announced Monday.
Testing started on Monday in one of Beijing’s 16 districts people where most of the new cases have been found and expanded on Tuesday to all but five outlying districts, but the city imposed in the meantime lockdowns on individual residential buildings and one section of the city.
The authorities have imposed strict measures under the Chinese zero-Covid approach to prevent a further spread of the virus although only 70 cases have been detected since the outbreak surfaced Friday, including the 29 new cases identified in the 24 hours through 4 p.m. Monday.
Mass free testing has been ordered across the 3.5 million residents of the sprawling Chaoyang, where 46 of the cases have been found with tests on people who work in the district extended on both Wednesday and Friday.
Outdoor testing sites emerged overnight both at residential complexes and at office buildings around the district where residents and workers lined up for a quick throat swab.
As a safeguard against the possibility that they could be confined indoors, many stocked up on food – snapping up rice, noodles, vegetables, and other food items – with state media reiterating that supplies remain plentiful despite the buying surge.
Some Beijing residents worked from home after authorities locked them down in an area of about 2 by 3 km, telling them to stay in their residential compounds while in five residential compounds the city also shut down some or all buildings.
Although the lockdown wasn’t total, entertainment venues such as cinemas and karaoke bars were ordered closed.
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