Beijing will conduct mass testing of most of its 21 million people, authorities announced Monday, as a new COVID-19 outbreak sparked stockpiling of food by residents worried about the possibility of a Shanghai-style lockdown.
The Chinese capital began mass testing people in one of its 16 districts where most of the new cases have been found. The city also imposed lockdowns on individual residential buildings and one section of the city. Late in the day, health officials said the testing would be expanded Tuesday to all but five outlying districts.
While only 70 cases have been found since the outbreak surfaced Friday, authorities have rolled out strict measures under China’s “zero-COVID” approach to try to prevent a further spread of the virus.
Some residents worked from home and many stocked up on food as a safeguard against the possibility that they could be confined indoors, as has happened in multiple cities, including the financial hub of Shanghai.
The city of Anyang in central China and Dandong on the border with North Korea became the latest to start lockdowns as the omicron variant spreads across the vast country of 1.4 billion people.
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.
State-media news outlet The Global Times said that Beijing's fresh food companies have been ordered to increase the supply of groceries like meat, poultry eggs and vegetables.
They also quoted health experts as saying that the results of the mass testing would indicate whether there is a need to escalate measures further, such as locking down several areas.
Separately, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, told state-media outlet China Daily that the number of cases in Beijing is expected to increase in the following days.
The officials also announced that mass testing would be expanded Tuesday to all but five outlying districts of the capital, covering about 19.5 million of the city's 21.5 million residents.
The announcement came after 29 cases were detected in the 24 hours through 4 p.m. Monday, though officials said all the new cases were discovered in areas already under epidemic controls.
"The outbreak in Beijing is coming fast and furious," Xu Hejian, a spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government, said at a news conference, adding that Beijing's epidemic prevention and control efforts have "reached a critical moment."
Since Friday, Beijing has reported a total of 80 cases. Although the caseload is still relatively low, authorities are not taking any chances, especially after seeing how fast the Omicron outbreak in Shanghai spiraled into tens of thousands of new cases.
Dozens of residential compounds across eight districts are already under strict lockdowns, in which residents are banned from leaving their homes or community grounds.
Officials have urged residents not to leave the city unless absolutely necessary, including during an upcoming five-day holiday. The Labor Day holiday, which begins on Saturday this year, has traditionally been a time for mass travel in China. But it is likely to be much more subdued this year.
Beijing is also suspending cultural performances, sports events, exhibitions and other activities that involve large gatherings, as well as all tutoring classes and training sessions.
Shanghai has buckled under a strict lockdown that has driven residents to band together to get food delivered through group buying. Goods have backed up at the port of Shanghai, affecting supplies and factory production and putting a crimp on economic growth.
Beijing locked down residents in an area about 2 by 3 kilometers (1 by 2 miles), telling them to work from home and stay in their residential compounds. It wasn’t a total lockdown but cinemas, karaoke bars and other entertainment venues were ordered closed.
Elsewhere, the city also shut down some or all buildings in five residential compounds, adding to others that were locked down on Sunday.
(with inputs from AP)
