Beijing residents are already starting to stock up on food and basic supplies amid fears of a new lockdown in the Chinese capital, as the country faces the worst moment of the Covid-19 pandemic in more than two years.
The population’s fear is of a rigid quarantine, similar to what happens in Shanghai, where there was a shortage crisis that revolted part of the city, China’s financial hub that recorded 51 deaths from the disease this Monday alone (25).
Concerns over the possibility of a lockdown in Beijing grew after authorities in the city’s most populous Chaoyang district, home to 3.5 million people, ordered all residents in the region to undergo three tests for the disease this week. —on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. After the announcement, ten other districts said they would also run a mass testing campaign from Thursday to Saturday.
On Monday, long lines formed to test residents. “If just one case is detected, this whole area could be affected,” said Yao Leiming, 25, who works in the district, as he waited.
It is in Chaoyang where most foreign embassies are located, as well as the headquarters of large companies and neighborhoods with high-income residents. Some buildings have already been closed and authorities have enacted restrictions whereby residents can only leave their homes for essential reasons, state television reported.
With all this, residents rushed to supermarkets on Sunday (24) in search of basic products, such as vegetables, meat, instant noodles and toilet paper.
Zhao, 31, a resident of Beijing, went shopping when he heard about the possible restrictions and left with groceries bags of eggs and vegetables, worried about his young son. “Adults can survive a few days, but it’s not the same for children,” he said.
Wang, 48, another resident of the city, said she feared “things will stay like in Shanghai.” “People are anxious, everyone is picking up products and we’re afraid things are going to run out,” she said. In Shanghai, where most of the population has been confined for weeks, the main bottleneck in the food supply has been the lack of couriers.
By Sunday night, delivery apps in Beijing were already short of products. A student who spoke to Reuters said he ordered dozens of snacks and 10 kilograms of apples online. “I’m preparing for the worst,” said the young man, who identified himself as Zhang.
Supermarket chains such as Carrefour and Wumart said they more than doubled their inventories. Online supermarket platform Meituan also announced that it had increased inventories and the number of employees for sorting and delivery, according to the Beijing Daily, the regime’s official newspaper in the capital.
Supermarket chains must ensure products are replenished on time, the government said, and store opening hours will also be extended. A regime official also stated that reserves of refined grains and oil can meet residents’ consumption needs for 30 days.
As of Friday, Beijing has reported 70 locally transmitted cases in eight of its 16 districts, 46 of them in Chaoyang. The number of cases in the Chinese capital is still small compared to the hundreds of thousands of infections recorded in Shanghai, but the Chaoyang district has already urged residents to reduce public activities.
Nearly 30 residential complexes in Beijing are currently facing some form of confinement. The city’s gyms canceled classes and suspended activities. Strict controls for entering the city were also announced, which include presenting negative tests for Covid-19. A few days before the May 1 holiday, the city government ordered travel agencies to suspend group tours in the capital.
Despite the measures and the queues for testing, life is still relatively normal in the Chinese capital, with 22 million inhabitants, and most schools, shops and offices remain open.
