A woman is in the crosshairs of the Beijing authorities after spreading "
rumors
" of an alleged confinement in the Chinese capital, which sparked a rush in supermarkets, police announced on Friday May 13.
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Covid-19: in Beijing, rumors of containment cause a rush in supermarkets
The city of Beijing has been facing an epidemic rebound of Covid-19 for several weeks, with between 40 and 80 new positive cases of coronavirus generally announced each day.
Restaurants and cafes no longer welcome customers.
Most shops, cinemas and gymnasiums are closed.
But if a few neighborhoods are confined, the vast majority of the nearly 22 million inhabitants can still leave their homes.
Detention, release, house arrest
However, messages broadcast Thursday on social networks assured that the authorities were going to announce in the same afternoon a three-day confinement and the suspension of delivery services – in particular of fresh products.
The rumor led to an unusual influx of shoppers into supermarkets looking for vegetables, meat, eggs, oil, fruit and other necessities.
“
This message was widely disseminated on social media, which seriously disturbed public order and had adverse effects
,” Beijing police said on the Weibo microblogging platform on Friday.
The 38-year-old woman suspected of being the source of the rumor "
is the subject of coercive criminal measures
", underlined the police, without specifying the nature.
These measures may consist of several forms of restriction of freedom: detention, release pending trial or placement under house arrest.
Almost daily PCR tests
The Ministry of Health announced 50 new positive cases in Beijing on Friday.
A figure that does not mark any reflux, despite the almost daily PCR tests to which the inhabitants are subjected.
However, the decline seems to be underway in Shanghai (East), the main Chinese city affected by the epidemic outbreak and where all of the 25 million inhabitants have been confined since the beginning of April.
Read alsoChina in the “zero Covid” trap
Some 2,100 new positive cases were announced on Friday - up from more than 25,000 at the end of last month.
The municipal authorities have also announced that they hope to arrive by "
mid-May
" to stop contamination within society (that is to say, excluding people placed in a quarantine center) - prior to a possible lifting of containment.
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Covid-19: is the epidemic coming to an end?
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