Beijing conducts mass COVID testing, enforces lockdowns

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Beijing residents lined up for throat swabs as workers put up fencing and police restricted who could leave a locked-down area on Tuesday after health officials said that 22 new COVID-19 cases were found over the course of the last 24 hours.

Mass testing was expanded to 11 of the Chinese capital’s 16 districts and Beijing tested nearly 3.8 million people in the Chaoyang district on Monday.

COVID CASES IN BEIJING LEAD OFFICIALS TO SUSPEND CLASSES, CONDUCT MASS TESTING

Chaoyang has had the most cases in the Beijing outbreak – though all the results there have been negative except for one in a group of five that were tested together.

Since the outbreak was discovered five days ago, the total number of infections has reached 92.

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Some apartment buildings and residential complexes were locked down, and other cities have been shuttered as the omicron variant continues to spread.

No deaths have been recorded – although an initial announcement of testing in one district sent consumers into a frenzy on Monday – and public transportation was reported to be functioning as normal.

Last Friday, city officials suspended classes for a week after 10 middle school students tested positive.

Local media said then that the city government also ordered the suspension of in-person after-school activities in the Chaoyang district.

The city’s outbreak is small in comparison to Shanghai, where the number of cases has exceeded 500,000 and at least 190 people have died.

Restrictions have since been eased for some of its residents, after stringent lockdowns and shortages of food and medicine.

Shanghai’s lockdown and strict “zero-COVID” strategy have drawn global attention.

Authorities there are enforcing a three-tier system that allows residents out of their homes if their area has had no new infections in the past week.