Beijing closed more shops and residential complexes on Friday (29) and intensified contact tracing to contain an outbreak of Covid-19, while in Shanghai population dissatisfaction grows with a strict lockdown that has lasted a month.
Authorities in the Chinese capital are racing against time to detect cases and isolate everyone who has had contact with the person affected by the disease. A sign outside a residential complex read “Entrance Only. No Exit.”
Polish Joanna Szklarska, 51, was sent to a quarantine hotel as a close contact for someone who tested positive, but refused to share a room, which had only one bed, with her neighbor.
She was sent back home, and authorities installed an alarm at her front door. Then she was called back to the hotel, where she now has her own dorm. “Nothing makes sense here,” she said over the phone.
At a press conference, Chinese health officials did not respond to whether Beijing will enter a lockdown or what circumstances might lead to such a move.
In Shanghai’s financial center, residents protest the lockdown and difficulties in getting supplies by banging pots and pans at night, according to a Reuters witness.
A video shared on social media, the authenticity of which could not be immediately verified, shows a woman warning people over a loudspeaker not to speak out, saying the riot was being encouraged by “outsiders”.
The Shanghai government did not respond to a request for comment.
The severe restrictions in China seem surreal to many parts of the world, where people have chosen to live with the virus.
And the frequent signs of frustration among citizens are uncomfortable for the Communist Party of China, especially as President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a third term of leadership this fall.
Nomura estimates that 46 cities are currently in full or partial lockdown, affecting 343 million people. According to Société Générale, provinces with significant mobility restrictions account for 80% of China’s economic output.
New Covid cases in Beijing remain in the dozens, officials said on Friday, a far cry from Shanghai’s figures.
mass testing
Chaoyang, the first district of the Chinese capital to undergo mass testing this week, began the last of three rounds of screening among its 3.5 million residents on Friday. Most other districts are due to take their third round of testing on Saturday.
More apartment blocks were closed, preventing residents from leaving, and some spas, gyms, movie theaters, libraries and at least two shopping centers closed on Friday.
People who have recently visited sites in areas that authorities have declared “at risk” have received text messages telling them not to leave until they receive the test results.
“Hello citizens! You recently visited the braised beef and chicken noodle shop in the community of Guanghui Li,” read one such text. “Please report to your complex or hotel immediately, stand still and wait for the nucleic acid test notification.”
“If you violate the above requirements and cause the epidemic to spread, you will have legal liability.”
The Labor Day holiday, from April 30 to May 4, is one of China’s busiest tourist seasons and the travel industry is suffering losses.
Companies reopening factories in Shanghai are reserving hotel rooms to house workers and turning vacant offices into on-site isolation facilities.
More and more foreigners want to leave mainland China’s most cosmopolitan city.
Authorities said more people were gradually allowed to leave their homes recently. More than 12 million, almost half of the population, are now in this category.
Still, many cannot leave their residential complexes, and those who can have few places to go as shops and other businesses are closed. More than 52,000 police have been deployed to enforce the lockdown, and they often ask people on the streets to return to their homes.
Residents have complained about the inflexible policing, saying it does not take into account health emergencies or other individual circumstances.
Shu Qing, head of the city’s Municipal Public Security Bureau, admitted to reporters that there were “shortcomings”. “Some individual officers … are emotional or mechanical,” he said.
Economy
In response to the pandemic and other setbacks, China will increase political support for the economy, a top ruling Communist Party decision-making body said on Friday.
Details are scarce, but analysts say there could be a shift from the regime’s current overall focus on the pandemic.
“Now the objective is to balance outbreak containment and economic growth,” said Zhiwei Zhang, president of Pinpoint Asset Management, which expects China’s economy to contract in the second quarter.
“This suggests that the government may adjust the ‘zero tolerance’ policy to allow for some flexibility.”
Chinese officials say fighting the virus is vital to saving lives.
“The battle against the Covid pandemic is a war, a war of resistance, a people’s war,” said Liang Wannian, head of the National Health Commission’s disease response panel.
