BEIJING - Scores of flights to and from
Beijing were cancelled, schools shut and some neighbourhoods
blocked off as officials ramped up efforts to contain a
coronavirus outbreak that has fanned fears of wider contagion.
The resurgence of the disease in the Chinese capital over
the past six days has upended daily life for many, with some
fearing the entire city is headed for a lockdown as the number
of new Covid-19 cases mounts.
Health officials reported 31 new confirmed infections for
June 16, bringing the cumulative infections since Thursday to
137 cases, the worst resurgence of the disease in Beijing since
early February.
While the city's roads and highways were still open and
companies and factories were not ordered to stop work,
authorities stepped up measures to control movement around and
to and from the city on Wednesday.
Aviation data tracker Variflight showed about 60% of
scheduled flights to and from Beijing Capital International
Airport have been or will likely be cancelled as of Wednesday
afternoon.
At the city's other major airport, Daxing, around 70% of
incoming and outbound flights were cancelled or likely to be
cancelled. Most of the affected flights are domestic.
State media reported that rail officials were granting full
refunds on all tickets to and from Beijing, an apparent bid to
discourage people from travelling even though services have not
been officially cancelled.
All outbound taxi and car-hailing services and some
long-distance bus routes were cancelled on Tuesday, when
officials put the city back on a level two alert, the
second-highest level in a four-tier Covid-19 emergency response
system. That reversed a downgrade from level two to level three
a mere 10 days earlier.
Some 27 neighbourhoods were designated as medium-risk areas,
where people entering are subjected to temperature checks and
registration. One area near the massive wholesale food centre
detected as the source of the outbreak was marked as high-risk,
quarantining residents.
Kindergartens, primary schools and high schools across
Beijing were shut, while some restaurants, bars and night clubs
also closed.
Some residents worried that Beijing was inching closer to a
full lockdown, echoing the strict bans on movement earlier this
year in the city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus was first
detected at a seafood market in December.
"What I'm worried about is whether there will be a level one
response like it was before, making it impossible for people to
work," said a 23-year-old media worker surnamed Wang.
The Beijing outbreak has been traced to the Xinfadi
wholesale food centre in the southwest of the city. Xinfadi is
much larger than than the Wuhan seafood market, from where the
virus spread around the world, infecting more than 8 million
people.
CONTAGION FEARS
Outside of Beijing, Hebei, Liaoning, Sichuan and Zhejiang
provinces have reported new cases linked to Xinfadi.
Concerned about contagion, some provinces imposed quarantine
requirements on visitors from Beijing, including Heilongjiang,
which only recently brought a local outbreak under control.
Authorities in Macau, the world's biggest casino hub, also
demanded arrivals from Beijing undergo a 14-day quarantine.
In Beijing, police guarded roadblocks at compounds near
Xinfandi while delivery staff on bikes and in vans queued to
hand over food and other supplies for residents.
"When they shut the market, it was a surprise," said Wei,
32, who came with her boyfriend to deliver supplies to her
mother who stayed in a compound where a case was confirmed.
"Many people heard and left the compounds, but my mother is
old and cannot leave easily. Today, we brought her some
vegetables and medicine."
Some residents said they were cancelling travel plans for
the three-day Dragonboat Festival long weekend at the end of
June.