AFP, published Monday, April 25, 2022 at 13:51
Street screenings to identify positive cases, rush to supermarkets: Beijing lives under threat of curfew on Monday following a rare epidemic outbreak in the Chinese capital.
Beijingers fear a Shanghai-style scenario in which almost all of the 25 million residents have been locked down since early April, often with difficulties accessing food and non-Covid medical supplies.
A total of 51 new deaths were announced there by the Ministry of Health on Monday – a record in the Chinese economic metropolis.
China is facing an epidemic that is affecting almost the entire country to varying degrees. She is trying to overcome this with her zero-Covid strategy.
This consists in particular of local exit restrictions and massive screenings to quickly identify and isolate infected people.
In Beijing on Monday, long lines, sometimes hundreds of residents, snaked between sidewalks and malls before arriving at screening tents where officers in full suits conducted PCR tests.
These sites are located in Chaoyang District, east of the capital. With around 3.5 million inhabitants, it is the most affected by this epidemic wave.
“If they find the slightest positive case, the entire area could be affected” and restricted, Yao Leiming, a 25-year-old office worker who is about to be tested, told AFP.
– “We are scared” –
The Ministry of Health reported 19 new positive cases in Beijing on Monday.
A total of 70 people have been infected since the outbreak began, said Pang Xinghuo, a senior official with the city’s health department.
She explained that the area of infection had “expanded” in the past few days.
About 40% of flights from the capital’s airports were canceled on Monday, according to specialized websites.
If the city hall hasn’t mentioned any restrictions so far, Beijingers, made cautious by the example of Shanghai, are rushing to supermarkets and online platforms to stock up on groceries.
“People are concerned about the situation,” Ms. Wang, a 48-year-old resident, told AFP.
“We are afraid that it will be like in Shanghai (…) We took vegetables, rice and fruit with us,” she explains, saying that she has enough food for a week.
However, the city of 22 million does not suffer from a lack of fresh produce.
Eggs, meat, oil, fruit and vegetables can still be bought on online platforms on Monday, as in stationary supermarkets, but there are queues at the entrance.
Almost thirty residential complexes in Beijing, i.e. a tiny part of the population, are currently in a kind of curfew.
– Holidays compromised –
A few days before the May Day holiday, the town hall called on residents not to leave the capital and to avoid gatherings or group meals.
She also ordered travel agencies to suspend group tours in Beijing, whose suburb is known for its mountains and water features.
However, life remains normal. Shops, restaurants and cinemas are still open.
But markets are worried: China’s stock markets in Shanghai (-5.13%), Shenzhen (-6.48%) and Hong Kong (-3.85%) all fell on Monday. European markets were also down during the session.
Oil prices have also fallen, a logical effect of demand that is bound to be more limited as restrictions in China tighten.
Beijing, the seat of communist power, has not suffered a serious epidemic outbreak since the start of the Covid and is the subject of very special attention.
Any traveler coming from the provinces must present a negative PCR test dated less than 48 hours.
However, Beijing’s situation is unlike that of Shanghai, which is facing the worst epidemic outbreak since the epidemic began, with already half a million positive cases since March 1.
This harsh confinement, of which no one knows how long it will last, weighs heavily on the morale of the residents and on the economy.