Beijing closed dozens of metro stations and bus routes and extended Covid-19 restrictions in many public places on Wednesday, focusing efforts to avoid the fate of Shanghai, where millions are under strict lockdown for more than than a month.
The central city of Zhengzhou also announced restrictions, joining dozens of major population centers under some form of lockdown as China seeks to eliminate a virus believed to have first emerged in the city of Wuhan in late 2019.
But this uncompromising battle is crippling its growth and the international companies invested there, the data shows, and it has also fueled rare public outbursts of discontent.
With dozens of new cases a day, Beijing hopes mass testing will find and isolate the virus before it spreads. Twelve of the city’s 16 districts conducted the second of three rounds of testing this week.
The city of 22 million people closed more than 60 subway stations on Wednesday, about 15% of the network, and 158 bus routes, service providers said, mostly in Chaoyang district, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Beijing officials also said the closure of schools, restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues — as well as some businesses and residential buildings — will extend beyond the Labor Day holiday from April 30 to May 4, without giving a deadline. .
Residents were encouraged to work from home starting Thursday rather than returning to offices whenever possible.
On Tuesday night, Zhengzhou, home to 12.6 million people and a factory for Apple’s iPhone maker Foxconn 2354.TW, announced work-from-home and other COVID restrictions for the coming week. Foxconn said on Wednesday it was continuing production there.
Source: CNN Brasil
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