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4:11
Beijing sees rising Covid cases, food shortages
Preventing the spread of the virus, there are already housing estates in Beijing, the capital of China, that are in lockdown. 26 cases were reported over the weekend in Chaoyang district alone, the capital's most populous district.
Because of this number, the highest ever, residents of this area are being asked to undergo nucleic acid testing at least three times a week. This test seeks to verify the existence of the virus in the blood.
Fear in Beijing is growing even though the government has promised sufficient food supplies. Citizens do not want to see themselves reflected in the mirror of Shanghai, a city that has been in extreme confinement for more than a week.
For now, the measure is to restrict tourist passage in this city and travel agencies have been asked to reimburse any income that has been issued.
A big shortage
In view of the demands that the inhabitants of Chaoyang must meet regarding the application of the test, the residents of this area began to stock up, leaving several empty supermarket shelves and causing long queues to enter them.
The images that circulate certify the panic in the streets and the search for food and utensils necessary to survive in confinement.
“People in Beijing are seeing the lockdowns in Shanghai, the lack of food and medicine and although it is not known if Beijing will have similar measures, people are getting nervous given the experience of what has happened”, explained Stephen McDonell, BBC correspondent in China.
In Shanghai, residents of some closed areas say that it has been impossible to access food from the basic basket, so they must wait for the government to provide them with eggs and vegetables.
Some users of Weibo, a Chinese social networking website, have commented on the difficulty of getting food amid this lockdown. This is what many of them reported:
"I never thought I would go to the market so early in the morning... When I arrived, all the eggs and shrimp were gone and all the meat had been looted." Another person commented that “seeing people in Beijing rushing to buy food is funny and distressing. It's seeing what my own life was like last month."
The latest outbreak in Shanghai reported more than 400,000 cases so far and 138 deaths. The authorities speak of a possible increase in cases in Beijing and that, depending on the results of the massive tests, preventive measures may be intensified.
The state news outlet The Global Times ordered an increase in the production of meat, poultry eggs and vegetables.
Built-in extreme measures
The Chinese authorities in Shanghai have had to impose some extreme measures in the town to prevent the virus from spreading further, some of them include electronic alarms on the doors of those infected to prevent them from leaving their homes.
Also, they have had to forcibly evacuate people from their homes to carry out disinfection in the areas. Similarly, green fences about two meters high have been seen in certain localities to prevent residents from leaving their homes, this has happened at night without prior notice.
Faced with such measures, social networks have revolutionized with comments from residents upset by the green fences and criticizing the workers who employ them. They limit that, in the event of a fire, they will not be able to leave the area, since they are prohibited from passing.
For their part, the authorities defend the measure, delimiting that this extreme confinement is more than necessary to prevent the localities that have tested positive from infecting those that are still negative for the virus.
China still continues with the goal of "Zero Covid" in the country, unlike many others that, on the contrary, have removed the use of the mask from their daily routine. Currently, the number of active symptomatic patients in China is greater than 29,178.
“A total lockdown can only be put in place when the spread is at an advanced stage or if it is detected early but not decisively controlled. We must be incisive and identify the sources of infection in time to avoid rebounds”, published The Global Times.
“Be the fastest as far as possible”, is the opinion of the same newspaper. In addition, the official press has emphasized the more than 500,000 infections since March in China and its high growth in cases again, for which the country must insist on the goal of "Zero Covid".
