Beijing reported a record number of Covid-19 cases in nearly three years on Tuesday, November 22, an increase that prompted authorities to order schools and restaurants to close, while many employees are called to work from at their home.
The capital of 22 million inhabitants, which had recorded 621 new local cases on Sunday, recorded 1,438 on Tuesday, a record since the start of the pandemic.
Nationwide, the total number of daily cases, including imported cases, has now exceeded 28,000, with southern Guangdong Province and southwest Chongqing City being the most affected, according to health authorities.
New variants and first deaths since May
China is the last major world economy to apply a strict health policy, known as zero Covid, which aims to do everything to prevent contamination and death.
It consists of imposing confinements as soon as cases appear, quarantines for people who test positive and almost daily PCR tests for the population.
But this strategy, initially effective in stemming the spread of the virus, seems to be running out of steam in the face of new variants and is dealing a severe blow to the economy, isolating China from the rest of the world and causing strong weariness among the Chinese.
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Three elderly Beijing residents with pre-existing medical conditions died of Covid-19 over the weekend, the first recorded virus-related deaths since May.
The capital's authorities seem to want to avoid strict confinement for the moment like the one applied in Shanghai in the spring, but have however reinforced health measures in recent days.
Nearly 600 areas of the capital, including residential buildings, are considered "
high risk
", forcing their inhabitants to remain confined to their homes or to be transported to quarantine centers.
Zero Covid Policy
Schools have switched to online classes, restaurants, gyms, parks and tourist sites have been closed and employees are being asked to work from home.
In the streets, queues in front of Covid-19 test booths are getting longer, with most public places now requiring a negative result within 24 hours to enter.
Read alsoThe “zero Covid” amputates Chinese exports
The Chinese government had however unveiled several significant relaxations of its zero Covid policy on November 11, including a reduction in quarantine times for travelers arriving from abroad.
Several Chinese cities had also stopped large-scale testing last week, but some of them have since reinstated them, reflecting the difficulty in controlling the more contagious Omicron variant.
