Listen to the audio version of the article
Mass testing of 25 million residents was due to be completed in Shanghai today to check what will happen next month, i.e. whether or not to confirm the full lockdown activated by the local community since March 28.
With new cases picking up over the weekend, with pressure to contain the epidemic not enough to stem the growth of new infections, the city has reported over 19,000 new positives and unfortunately also 51 deaths which – according to widespread rumors – would be minimal part of the actual.
In addition, the Omicron BA variant is also spreading in Beijing: last Sunday, the Chinese capital recorded 11 cases in Chaoyang District and, in anticipation of the possible outbreak of a new outbreak, immediately announced the start of three cycles of mass testing on about 3.5 million residents in this area. A huge area, a city within the city.
It is hoped the capital will be spared the cruel quarantine that is bending Shanghai in two with lockdowns on entire condominium clusters, the difficulty of meeting the population’s basic needs from food to medicines and drinking water to zero mobility. Not even the gardens around the city can be worked on, vegetables rot in the fields while supplies are blocked by the port’s power outage, the world’s first for traffic volume.
Shanghai, the Covid prisoners
Photo gallery 20 photos
view
In fact, there are also panic scenes in Beijing with queues in front of shops and scenes of collective hysteria during the tests. The same script has already been seen in Shanghai for the past three weeks, also as authorities there tightened restrictions further, warning that strict measures would continue “neighborhood by neighborhood” until Covid-19 is fully eradicated.