Beijing to test 20 million for COVID as lockdown jitters grow (updated)

Citychamp Watch & Jewellery

26/04/2022 04:44

* Beijing expands mass testing to 10 other districts, 1
economic
zone
    * Residents flock to supermarkets to stock up on food,
supplies

 (Adds comments from president of European Union Chamber of
Commerce, Beijing resident)
    BEIJING, April 26 (Reuters) - Residents across Beijing
joined growing lines of people waiting to be screened for
COVID-19 on Tuesday after the Chinese capital overnight ramped
up plans for mass-testing to 20 million people and fuelled
worries about a looming lockdown. 
    Amid comparisons with Shanghai, where more than 1,000 cases
were reported in March before widespread curbs were finally
imposed on 26 million people, many in Beijing flocked to
supermarkets to stock up on food and supplies fearing sudden
localised lockdowns.
    Authorities on Tuesday started to close some gyms, theatres
and tourist sites, the day after Beijing began testing the
residents of its most populous district, Chaoyang. By
end-Monday, Beijing announced it would conduct tests on 10 other
districts and one economic development zone by Saturday.
    The Chinese capital reported 33 new locally transmitted
cases for April 25, the city's health authority said on Tuesday,
of which 32 were symptomatic and one was asymptomatic. That was
slightly higher than 19 community infections reported a day
earlier.
    Beijing's decision to test most of its total population of
22 million days after detecting a small number of infections
contrasts with Shanghai, which waited for about a month after
its outbreak began before moving to city-wide mass testing in
early April.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VU04I
    Three rounds of PCR tests will be conducted from Tuesday to
Saturday in districts including Haidian, where Liu Wentao, a
cook leaving his dorm to get tested, told Reuters he was
concerned at how fast the virus was spreading though confident
Beijing could avoid locking down like Shanghai. 
    "Beijing is the capital, the virus controls are stronger
than in other places, I don't think it will be like Shanghai,
where it suddenly increases to thousands of cases," Liu said.
    While Beijing's latest COVID outbreak is modest by global
standards, a Shanghai-style lockdown of the Chinese capital
would further cloud the country's economic outlook.
    Shanghai's economy slowed in the first quarter, hurt by rare
declines in industrial output and local consumption due to the
city's COVID outbreak. In March alone, retail sales nosedived by
18.9%.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2WH1A9
    "Clearly, Shanghai has taught one lesson, which is if you go
down this line of total lockdowns, not only is it incredibly
expensive, but also it's economically destructive and it
stresses out the social fibre," Joerg Wuttke, president of the
European Union Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters.
    Asian markets suffered their worst day in over a month on
Monday on fears that Beijing was about to enter such a lockdown.
Chinese shares slumped to a two-year low. 

 (Reporting by Ryan Woo and Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Bernard
Orr and Kenneth Maxwell)
 ((Ryan.Woo@thomsonreuters.com;))