WEB DESK
China has further tightened the COVID-19 restrictions in its capital Beijing ahead of the Labour Day holidays with authorities rolling out new measures every day vowing to double down on its Zero COVID approach. Beijing, which is on high alert against instability before the important Communist Party national congress in the autumn, has seen local infections gradually growing nearly 300 within a week.
Beijing local authorities said on Saturday that the city is building central quarantine facilities, and already has 4000 beds prepared and more on the way, adding that they are building them out of precaution. As per the latest order, a negative COVID test result within 48 hours is required to enter public facilities in Beijing in view of the holidays. Restaurant dining has been barred. From Thursday, after Labour Day break, residents in the Chinese capital will be required to provide proof of a negative PCR test result taken within the previous seven days to use public transport and enter office buildings, entertainment venues and sporting facilities. Requirements for visiting hospitals and taking part in bigger gatherings such as meetings will be even tighter, with the testing window narrowed to 48 hours. But tests cannot be used to bar people needing urgent or critical care from entering hospitals as authorities learnt from public outcry during previous lockdowns. The municipal government did not say how long the policy will continue.
The requirements are in addition to the three rounds of mass testing carried out in 11 out of Beijing’s 16 districts in the last week and the Chaoyang district will undergo another three rounds of COVID test starting from tomorrow. Targeted lockdowns have also been imposed on a number of downtown commercial and residential areas after several clusters of cases.
In another major city, the financial capital Shanghai which captured the international attention due to its ravaging COVID outbreak causing more than 550000 cases and plaguing lockdown, new Covid-19 infections again crossed 10,000 mark including asymptomatic ones. There was not a single case in so-called unguarded zones, suggesting that Shanghai has achieved the societal zero-Covid goal, when new cases are limited to people already in quarantine raising hopes of ease in the lockdown. The local government defined three categories of risk for residential areas in the city and allowed limited freedom for those at the lowest risk, but the city has yet to announce a timeline for reopening. The city’s anti-pandemic work was still “at a critical stage” and the government will continue to tighten restriction measures at the community level, Shanghai health commission said on Saturday.
More than six weeks of lockdown has led to anger and frustration among 25 million Shanghai residents who have struggled to find food and other daily necessities and shown rare public protests to the government’s stringent controls mostly on social media. The residents of Shanghai are protesting against the month-long lockdown and difficulties in obtaining provisions by banging pots and pans. According to media reports, thousands of elderly people in the Chinese city of Shanghai have been hit hard by the ongoing lockdown as they have been forced to move in crowded state-run quarantine centers which are reportedly in unsanitary conditions, with clogged up toilets and overflowing rubbish bins.
There have been varying estimates of the number of people in some form of lockdown across China ranging from 180 million to 340 million affecting as much as 80% of China’s economic output. In response to COVID-19 and other global headwinds, China will step up policy support for the economy, a top decision-making body of the Communist Party said on Friday, lifting stocks from recent two-year lows. Mainland China reported 10,703 new local cases on Saturday, down from 10,793 COVID-19 cases on Apr 29, the National Health Commission said.