Beijing district urges people to stay home as Covid surges

China logged 25,129 new local infections for Thursday, up from 23,132 a day earlier, and nearing the record of over 29,000 recorded in April amid financial capital Shanghai’s worst outbreak

Beijing: Chaoyang , the largest district of China’s capital Beijing, on Friday evening urged people to stay home for the weekend and restricted intra-city travel as Covid-19 cases continue to rise in the city as well as across the country amid the government’s efforts to finetune its “zero-Covid” policy.

Residents walk near pandemic prevention workers in protective suits in a locked-down residential compound as outbreaks of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) continue in Beijing, China (REUTERS)

China logged 25,129 new local infections for Thursday, up from 23,132 a day earlier, and nearing the record of over 29,000 recorded in April amid financial capital Shanghai’s worst outbreak.

Bejing’s central business district, which is home to embassies, skyscrapers and fancy restaurants, urged residents to stay home this weekend after the city reported a record 466 infections for Thursday, the highest single day increase since the pandemic began and up from 434 a day earlier.

Targeted lockdowns have been imposed in many communities across the city, while dining in has been suspended in restaurants in district. Chaoyang residents going to other parts of the country are being asked to quarantine.

A negative 24-hour nucleic acid test is now mandatory to enter many public places in the rest of the city.

“Beijing is going through a big test,” city government spokesperson Xu Hejian told a Friday media briefing.

“The next two days coincide with the weekend and are an important period to curb the rapid growth of the epidemic,” Xu said.

A total of 276 “social cases” – new infections outside centralised quarantine – were reported between November 13 and 17, and the risk of hidden transmission in the city continues to exist, Xu said.

The southern province of Guangdong continues to be the worst hit in the current Covid-19 outbreak.

The province logged more than 10,000 local cases on Thursday with nearly all new cases reported in the provincial capital Guangzhou.

“Authorities (in Guangzhou) are ramping up the building of makeshift hospitals and quarantine sites, with a goal of providing nearly 250,000 beds for confirmed and suspected cases. Since October 22, the city has reported more than 50,000 Covid cases, mainly in its Haizhu district,” the Caixin news website reported.

The sharp rise in Covid-19 cases across China has come against the backdrop of the government attempting to ease its policy on Covid restrictions.

At least six cities including Shanghai and Sanya, capital of the Hainan island, have scrapped mass nucleic acid testing in an effort to implement the new measures.

“One of the 20 optimised measures urged against frequent testing in areas with no infections, and stipulated that testing entire districts will only be used to screen transmission chains and find the sources of infections,” the state-run tabloid, Global Times, reported.