Beijing May Soon Face Lockdown

Beijing reported a record number of new Covid-19 cases for its current outbreak, reviving concern that the city may face a broad lockdown as authorities seek to stamp out community spread of the virus.

The Chinese capital recorded 99 infections for Sunday, up from 61 on Saturday. While the total is still low, the spike is one of the biggest since the outbreak started, with the case tally mostly hovering around 50 a day.

The growing outbreak in Beijing underscores the challenges of China’s Covid Zero approach, with the unprecedented shutdown of Shanghai providing a cautionary tale of how early mistakes could lead to rapid spread of a virus China is still trying to wipe out. The strategy has become increasingly controversial in the face of highly transmissible variants, leaving the country isolated from the rest of the world despite the harsh containment measures, even as officials look for ways to minimize the economic fallout.

There were 802 new infections reported China-wide for Sunday, down from 824 on Saturday. That was the first time the tally was below 1,000 since March 9 and is down from a daily peak of almost 30,000 on April 13. Shanghai reported 558 cases on Sunday, a decrease from 622 on Saturday. No new infections were found outside of government quarantine in the financial hub.

Containing Covid has come at a crushing social and economic cost for China. Millions of Shanghai residents have been confined to their homes for weeks, and even though the lockdown is easing, many restrictions remain in place. China’s ongoing pursuit of Covid Zero means the nation is likely to remain in a loop of lockdowns and swift hard-line responses until the Chinese Communist Party congress later this year, where Presiding Xi Jinping is expected to secure an unprecedented third term in power.

Leaders have pledged financial support to reach the country’s growth targets and are weighing other measures to curtail the damage to China’s international reputation. Beijing is considering a reduction in the amount of time new arrivals to the city must spend in quarantine—one week in a hotel, down from two, plus one week at home—at the behest of international companies that have struggled to bring in expatriate workers, the South China Morning Post reported.

While Shanghai’s flareup is coming under better control, the city has reported hundreds of deaths, mostly among unvaccinated elderly residents. Only 62 percent of people aged 60 or above have been fully vaccinated, a municipal health commission official said Monday. That’s below the national average of more than 80 percent and is unchanged since mid-April, when the city was deep in its lockdown. Health authorities are encouraging residents to get inoculated now that restrictions are easing and vaccine clinics are reopening.

Shanghai authorities on Sunday laid out the criteria they would use to categorize parts of the city as low-risk for Covid as they look to end the lockdown. From June, districts that haven’t reported positive cases or community infections for 14 days will be defined as low-risk. Residents in high- and medium-risk areas will be restricted to their homes and be required to take a PCR test daily for 14 days.

In Beijing, authorities reiterated over the weekend that residents in six areas, including the Chaoyang central business district and the Haidian technology hub, should work from home through May 28. The city’s western Shijingshan district, the latest addition to the list, said all office areas and buildings will conduct closed-loop management and strictly control gatherings.

Five districts, including the central Dongcheng district, are still reporting community spread of infections. All residents of a large housing complex were sent to quarantine after 26 cases were discovered in the compound, the Beijing Youth Daily reported on Saturday. Over the weekend, police also detained executives from a Covid testing lab amid an ongoing probe into under-reporting of testing results.

The uptick in cases in the capital, and concerns about the severity of the response to tame the flareup, pushed China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index down as much as 1.1 percent in Monday’s morning session, even as the broader Asian equity gauge traded slightly higher.

Elsewhere, the northern port city of Tianjin is racing to contain an omicron flareup. Mass testing over the weekend weeded out new cases, with signs of infections spreading from two districts to the downtown area of the city of 13.7 million residents. An outbreak back in January disrupted supply chains for automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG.

—With assistance from Dong Lyu.

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