Lockdown of communities, mass testing in Beijing

China’s capital Beijing is enforcing mass testing and closing down access to neighborhoods as it seeks to contain a new COVID-19 outbreak. Announcement of the testing had sparked panic buying in the city of 21 million on Monday.

Fears of total lockdown have been fed by the situation in the southern business hub of Shanghai, where 25 million residents have only gradually been allowed to leave their homes after three weeks of confinement.

Shanghai has buckled under strict lockdown conditions that have driven residents to band together to get food delivered through group buying. Beijing locked down residents in an area about 2 by 3 kilometers, telling them to work from home and stay in their residential compounds.

It wasn’t a total lockdown but stadiums, sports fields, cinemas, karaoke bars and other entertainment venues were ordered closed. Beijing has recorded 80 cases in the most recent wave, while Shanghai has seen more than 300,000 and 190 deaths this month.