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The Chinese capital, Beijing, has begun mass testing of millions of residents after a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases.
Chaoyang District recorded 26 cases over the weekend, the highest number so far in Beijing’s latest increase.
Long queues were seen in shops and stores, despite government assurances of adequate food supplies.
This comes amid fears that Beijing will face a situation similar to what happened in Shanghai, which witnessed a general closure of about 25 million people in their homes for weeks.
All 3.5 million residents in Chaoyang District, Beijing’s largest, are undergoing three rounds of mass testing, according to a notification issued by the city’s disease prevention team.
The news prompted residents to hurry to stock up on essential supplies, with images circulating in local media showing empty supermarket shelves and large queues in front of places designated to pay for goods.
Major supermarkets in Beijing have also extended their opening hours to accommodate the surge in demand.
One user of Shanghai’s Weibo website said: “I never thought I’d go to the market early in the morning… When I got there, the eggs, prawns and all the meat were completely out, before adding that they managed to get some vegetables.”
Another user of Shanghai’s Weibo website said: “Seeing people in Beijing rush to buy food is funny and upsetting… It’s like looking at what my life has been like just last month.”
The state-run The Global Times said fresh food companies in Beijing had been ordered to increase the supply of groceries such as meat, poultry eggs and vegetables.
It also quoted health experts as saying that the mass test results will indicate whether more measures are needed, such as closing several areas.
picture released, Supplied
Separately, Pang Xinghu, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, told the state newspaper, China Daily, that the number of cases in Beijing is expected to increase in the following days.
The recent outbreak of Covid-19 in Shanghai, which was first detected in late March, has seen more than 400,000 cases recorded so far and 138 deaths.
Some of the measures imposed by the Chinese authorities include setting up electronic door alarms to prevent the injured from leaving and forcibly evacuating people from their homes to carry out disinfection measures.
Some in closed areas of Shanghai say they are finding it very difficult to get food supplies and are having to wait for government deliveries of vegetables, meat and eggs.
Green barriers have also been set up in some areas of Shanghai without warning, effectively preventing residents from leaving their homes.
Unlike many other countries, China is pursuing a zero-Covid-19 strategy with the goal of completely eradicating the virus from the country.
And while officials were able to keep infection levels relatively low at the start of the pandemic, subsequent lockdowns have struggled to contain more modern and transmissible variants of the virus.