Beijing has quickly expanded its mass tests for Covid-19 from a neighborhood this week to most of the city with nearly 22 million residents, adding to expectations of an imminent blockade similar to that in Shanghai.
The Chinese capital began testing residents of its most populous Chaoyang area on Monday. By the end of the day, although only some of the results had come out, the city decided to conduct tests in 10 other areas and one economic development zone by Saturday.
The Chinese capital announced 33 new cases of local transmission on April 25, city health authorities said on Tuesday, 32 of which were symptomatic and one asymptomatic. That’s slightly higher than the 19 infections in the community reported a day earlier.
Beijing’s decision to test about 20 million people came days after dozens of infections were discovered. In contrast, Shanghai waited about a month and more than 1,000 cases before mass testing across the city began in early April.
“To decisively reduce the risk of the epidemic spreading and effectively maintaining the health of citizens, it was decided to further expand the scope of regional screening based on tests conducted in the Chaoyang district,” said a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Government. said Monday night.
Three rounds of PCR tests will be held from Tuesday to Saturday in the districts of Dongcheng, Xicheng, Haidian, Fengtai, Shijingshan, Fangshan, Tongzhou, Shunyi, Changping, Daxing, as well as in the Beijing Economic Development Zone.
Covid’s latest outbreak in Beijing, albeit modest by world standards, is expected to deepen fears of a Chinese-style blockade of the Chinese capital, further blurring the country’s economic prospects as endless mass tests, austere quarantine and strict social rules distancing give their. .
Asian markets suffered their worst day in more than a month on Monday due to fears that Beijing was on the verge of entering such a blockade. Chinese stocks fell to a two-year low.
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