Bejing Expands Covid Testing To 11 Districts

Beijing on Tuesday expanded its Covid-19 mass testing to eleven districts, as Covid cases ticked up.

This comes as the city reported 32 local symptomatic infections and one asymptomatic case on Tuesday, compared to a total of 19 the day before.

The capital began testing the residents of Chaoyang on Monday, and soon decided to also carry out tests on 10 other districts and one economic development zone.

Three rounds of PCR tests will be conducted from Tuesday to Saturday in Dongcheng, Xicheng, Haidian, Fengtai, Shijingshan, Fangshan, Tongzhou, Shunyi, Changping, Daxing, as well as the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area.

Cultural performances, sports events, marketing exhibitions and other large-scale gatherings in the capital will be suspended in the meantime.

A Hongkonger living in Chaoyang district, 35-year-old Elizabeth, told RTHK that she and her friends have been stocking up just in case authorities impose a lockdown.

“To be honest, there aren’t that many cases in Beijing right now but people are already predicting that there might be lockdown and all that. I think Beijing being the capital; it couldn’t risk having so many cases like Shanghai did,” she said.

The business consultant said she wasn’t having difficulty buying food.

“We’re reminded by the Shanghai residents that we have to stock up as well so we have been stocking up since then,” said Elizabeth. “I don’t really have difficulty buying things… The supermarkets in my neighborhood still look pretty normal.”

Meanwhile, Shanghai reported around 17,000 new Covid-19 cases and 52 more deaths.

The city logged 1,661 new local symptomatic cases, down from 2,472 cases the day before.

The number of local asymptomatic cases also fell to 15,319.

Shanghai officials said while the epidemic situation remains serious, it is now going on a downward trend.