Beijing Warns Of Additional COVID-19 Cases; Key Business District Imposes New Restrictions

The Chinese capital of Beijing has warned of more coronavirus cases after it reported a spike in new infections over the weekend. The major business district of Chaoyang in Beijing, which has about 3.5 million residents, has also imposed new restrictions as the prolonged lockdown in Shanghai continues.

Beijing said over the weekend that there will be more COVID-19 cases to be confirmed as mass testing in the business district of Chaoyang started, CNBC reported. Local authorities noted that there have been undetected cases in the city for a week now. The warning came as the Chinese capital reported 42 new coronavirus cases since Friday, marking the highest weekend increase in new cases since its latest surge. On Sunday alone, there were 19 new infections, triggering action from local officials.

During a news briefing Saturday, municipal official Tian Wei said that “the city has recently seen several outbreaks involving multiple transmission chains, and the risk of continued and undetected transmission is high.” Tian said “the situation is urgent and grim,” urging action from “the whole city,” CNN reported.

Beijing’s largest district and business center Chaoyang announced mass testing Sunday. The three-day mass testing procedures kicked off Monday morning. Chaoyang previously placed some residential communities under “control management,” which prevented residents from leaving the area while testing progressed. Deputy head of Chaoyang, Yang Beibei, said residents “should try to reduce their social activities,” local newspaper China Daily reported. She added that “all sports, art and training schools in Chaoyang have suspended in-person classes since Saturday.”

All regional tour groups were also suspended in Chaoyang following the confirmation of an investigation into one COVID-19 case that involved a tour group in a Beijing suburb. One residential community in the business district has been tagged as a high-risk area.

Meanwhile, the public outcry over the prolonged lockdown in China’s biggest city, Shanghai, continues. The city has seen a significant increase in COVID-19 cases over the last few weeks.

On Saturday, Shanghai officials barricaded some residential buildings with mesh barriers in what the local government described as “hard isolation,” The Guardian reported. The buildings with erected barriers were reported to have at least one person who tested positive for COVID-19. Some residents took to social media to express frustration over the barricaded facilities in the city of 26 million people.

Reuters reported that over the past week, it saw Chinese police in hazmat suits, setting up roadblocks and directing people back to their homes. The outlet added that while it could not verify the authenticity of photos uploaded on social media regarding the barricades, it saw green fencing on one street in central Shanghai on Sunday.

According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), China has logged a total of 995,928 confirmed COVID-19 cases and a total of 14,742 deaths linked to the disease as of April 22. The novel coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province late in 2019, but details about the virus only emerged publicly in early 2020.