Health workers register people for inoculation of the Covid-19 vaccine in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on Jan. 15.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
Photographer: Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
Beijing has imposed a blockade of 1.7 million people in part of the Chinese capital, while officials rush to prevent the resurgence of Covid-19 in the north of the country from reaching its most important city.
The Daxing district in southern Beijing, where its new airport is located, was isolated from the rest of the country after six infections were found there. The total number of cases in Beijing is 15, while more than 1,000 infections have been detected across the country since the beginning of January, mainly in the vast rural provinces of northern China.
Although the number of cases is small compared to outbreaks in Western countries, the outbreak – fueled by an exceptionally cold winter – has been the biggest challenge for coronavirus in China since the Wuhan crisis a year ago, due to its potential to spread. to the capital of more than 20 million people, the cultural and political center of China.
With three weeks to go before the Chinese New Year holiday, officials are under pressure to halt transmission of the virus before the period of mass travel around the country begins.
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Residents of five apartment complexes in Daxing were banned from leaving their homes as of Wednesday, said the local government, while students from across the district were told to stay home. A wide variety of public places, including office buildings, hotels, restaurants, factories and supermarkets have been closed down while the population of Daxing is subjected to mass testing.
In addition, Beijing now requires anyone coming from abroad to the city to be isolated in quarantine for 21 days – first in a centralized facility for 14 days and then in their residence for seven days. They can then move around the city, but are banned from any public meeting for another seven days.
The total of 28 days of restriction for foreign arrivals is among the most stringent travel guidelines imposed in any major city.
Daxing’s brakes are the first virus restrictions in Beijing since last summer, when an outbreak that was traced to an imported salmon seller has grown to more than 300 cases.
“The cases of family groupings in Daxing have raised the alarm that the epidemic situation is difficult and complex,” Xu Hejian, spokesman for the Beijing municipal government, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “We cannot relax in the prevention of imported cases and a domestic recovery.”
– With the help of John Liu and Claire Che