- A ferocious covid outbreak.
- Epidemic prevention work tightened.
- Careless behaviour of affected people.
The current batch of at least 287 instances has sparked new concerns about the Chinese economy’s prospects as reported by The Guardian.
Serious outbreak
Authorities in Beijing have warned that a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases linked to a 24-hour bar was critical and the city of 22 million people was in a “race against time” to get to grips with its most serious outbreak since the pandemic began.
The flare-up means millions of people are facing mandatory testing and thousands are under targeted lockdowns, just days after the city started to lift widespread curbs intended to tackle a broader outbreak since late April.
Authorities announced at the weekend a “ferocious” Covid outbreak linked to the Heaven Supermarket bar, which had only just reopened after coronavirus curbs were eased last week.
The outbreak of at least 287 cases has raised new worries about the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy.
China is just recovering from a two-month lockdown in the city of Shanghai that had raised worries about global supply chains.
Lockdown
“We should go all out, race against time,” He Lijian, spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government, told a news conference, referring to efforts to contain the outbreak.
Drinking and dining in most establishments in Beijing only resumed on 6 June, after more than a month of measures such as takeaway meals only and working from home, along with the closure of malls and stretches of the transport system.
Authorities have refrained from restoring the toughest of the earlier restrictions, but about 10,000 close contacts of the customers of the bar have been identified and their residential buildings put under lockdown.
Chaoyang, the city’s largest district in which the bar is located, began a three-day mass testing campaign on Monday for its roughly 3.5 million residents.
People infected in the latest surge in cases live or work in 14 of the capital’s 16 districts, authorities have said.
Criminal investigation
Pan said three other people, two of whom had visited the bar and the other a close contact of bar customers, had been put under criminal investigation after they insisted on going out despite being ordered to isolate themselves at home.
The bar’s business licence has been revoked after officials found it failed to comply with rules including checking customers’ temperature and Covid test results, or making sure customers scanned a digital health code, the market regulator in Chaoyang said.
The paper has repeatedly pointed the finger at an individual, called Patient No 1,991, for starting the flare-up.
Careless behaviour had turned the unidentified person into the “propagator” of the outbreak.
But despite the fever, the person returned to the bar early on 9 June, the same day a handful of other bar patrons were found to be infected.
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Source: The Guardian
