Corona increase in Beijing – population must stay at home on weekends

Due to an increase in corona infections in Beijing, the population in large parts of the Chinese capital has been asked to stay at home during the weekend. Many restaurants and shops remained closed on Saturday. The day before, about 500 new infections were detected among the 21 million inhabitants. Nationally, there were more than 24,000.

The outbreaks in several metropolises such as Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai or Chongqing have reached the highest number of infections in recent weeks since the two-month lockdown in Shanghai six months ago. But instead of imposing blanket restrictions, without major announcements, authorities are beginning to “close” specific neighborhoods or districts.

Apparently this is not intended to arouse displeasure among the population. The store closures were partly caused by shopping centers themselves. In Beijing, the largest district in the east, Chaoyang with a population of 3.5 million was particularly hard hit. But similar restrictions were also reported from other parts of the city.

Supermarkets, pharmacies and markets remained open. However, a negative PCR test from the past 24 hours often had to be proven at the entrance – no longer from the past 48 hours, as is usually the case. Primary and secondary schools remained closed and had online classes. “Society must be closed down,” a statement said.

While the rest of the world tries to live with the virus, China continues to implement a strict zero-Covid strategy of lockdowns, daily mass testing, strict surveillance, contact tracing and enforced quarantine. Nevertheless, the number of new infections has increased sharply because new omicron variants spread more easily.

Last week, Peking University was put on lockdown after a single case of coronavirus was discovered. Students and teachers are not allowed to leave the campus. The hard-hit metropolis of Guangzhou in southern China wants to increase its quarantine capacity by a quarter of a million places.

While measures are being implemented in a more targeted manner and also being tightened up, the situation has become confusing. Some cities are testing more frequently, but the 15 million metropolis of Shijiazhuang in Hebei province, not far from Beijing, no longer requires mandatory PCR testing, only for specific groups. Municipalities are increasingly suffering from the increasing cost pressure of the tests. (sda/dpa)