Mass testing in Beijing after spike in Covid-19 cases
Chinese capital Beijing has begun mass testing for millions of residents after spike in COVID-19 cases
The Chaoyang district reported 26 cases over the weekend – the highest number so far in Beijing’s latest surge.
Long queues outside supermarkets and shops were seen despite government assurances there is sufficient food.
It comes amid fears that Beijing could face a similar situation to Shanghai, which has seen about 25 million people shut in their homes for weeks.
All 3.5 million residents in Chaoyang, Beijing’s most populous district, will undergo three rounds of mass testing, according to a notice by the city’s disease prevention team.
The news prompted residents to rush to stock up essential supplies, with images circulating on local media showing supermarket shelves emptied of goods and snaking queues at check-out counters.
Beijing’s major supermarkets also extended their opening hours to accommodate the spike in demand. Beijing’s fresh food companies have been ordered to increase the supply of groceries like meat, poultry eggs and vegetables.
Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said that the number of cases in Beijing is expected to increase in the following days.
The latest outbreak in Shanghai, first detected in late March, has seen more than 400,000 cases recorded so far and 138 deaths.
Some of the measures Chinese authorities have enforced include placing electronic door alarms to prevent those infected from leaving and forcibly evacuating people from their homes to carry out disinfection procedures.
Some in locked-down areas of Shanghai say they have been struggling to access food supplies, and forced to wait for government drop-offs of vegetables, meat and eggs.
Green barricades have also been erected overnight in parts of Shanghai without prior warning, effectively preventing residents from leaving their homes.
In contrast to many other countries, China is pursuing a zero-Covid strategy with the aim of eradicating the virus from the country completely.
While officials managed to keep infection levels relatively low at the beginning of the pandemic, later lock-downs have struggled to contain recent, more transmissible variants of the virus.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES