Residents wearing masks shop at a supermarket in the Chaoyang district of Beijing, on April 25.Ng Han Guan/The Associated Press
Beijing will mass test almost all of its 21 million-strong population this week, after a spike in COVID cases in the Chinese capital.
Residents of the affluent Chaoyang area, home to Beijing’s central business district and most foreign embassies, were ordered to be tested Monday. Hours after that exercise wrapped up, officials ordered an expansion of testing to 10 other districts, covering most of the city.
Many residents responded to the news by rushing out to stock up on supplies, fearing a Shanghai-style lockdown. Long queues could be seen at supermarkets as people bought bags of rice, bottles of water and canned goods.
Shanghai has been locked down for almost a month now, with many residents struggling to find enough food and medical supplies at times, and subject to daily testing and other restrictions. Such measures have increasingly been met with an unprecedented level of resistance in a country where most of the population until recently supported the government’s tough “COVID zero” response.
Over the weekend, a compilation of videos from Shanghai’s lockdown went viral on Chinese social media. Entitled “Voices of April,” it contrasted officials’ initial promises there would be no lockdown with people’s desperate pleas for help once restrictions kicked in, along with rising case numbers, food shortages and other issues.
Since being shared widely Friday evening, the video has been subject to intense censorship, with platforms ordered to perform a “comprehensive cleanup” of the video and any screenshots of it, according to a directive leaked to the U.S.-based anti-censorship website China Digital Times.
For all the growing public dissent, however, China’s leaders have shown no inclination to back down from their strict response.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Liang Wannian, who heads an advisory panel on the government’s COVID-19 response, said relaxing restrictions “would be a huge disaster.”
“Once we relax control, the virus will spread widely and there will be many heavy cases and deaths among the elderly,” he said.
“The huge number of heavy cases will take a toll on the medical system, and if medical staff get infected, medical services cannot be provided, and there will be a vicious cycle.”
Such statements have led many in Beijing to fear the worst as cases tick up in the Chinese capital. By Monday afternoon, authorities in Chaoyang were already advising residents to “stay indoors and not leave your residential community,” which many saw as a precursor to a full lockdown.
Traders appeared to agree, as stocks in Shanghai and Hong Kong fell Monday on the news. Already, restrictions in Shanghai and elsewhere across China are taking a major toll on the world’s second-largest economy.
Last week, government data showed a significant drop in retail sales in March and a growth in joblessness to the highest level since May, 2020, a situation most experts expect will worsen throughout April and into May.
With a report from Alexandra Li
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