Beijing initiates 3-level testing on locals after Covid-19 surge

Beijing: According to media reports, Beijing has initiated rampant testing on millions of locals of China's capital after an uptick in fresh Covid-19 cases detected there, IANS reported.

At the weekend, the Chaoyang district registered 26 new cases, the highest so far in the recent surge, BBC reported.

The administration is to subject all the 3.5 million residents of the district to three rounds of mass testing, a notice issued by the city's disease prevention team stated. After that, locals started gathering essential supplies, while local media covered pictures of people queuing before supplies stores and empty shelves. Leading supermarkets in the capital have extended working hours to meet the surging demand.

The sudden hysterical situation arose after 25 million population of Shanghai were kept in their home for weeks.

BBC quoted a local of Shanghai, "Never thought I would go to the market early in the morning... When I got there, all the eggs and prawns were gone, and all the meat was snatched up."

Another person told BBC, "Seeing people in Beijing rush to buy food is both funny and distressing... it's like looking at what my own life was like just last month."

BBC reported that health officials informed that mass testing would clarify whether containment measures should be scaled up or not. The Shanghai outbreak, first detected in March, has recorded 400,000 cases so far and 138 deaths.

Chinese authorities have forcefully installed electronic door alarms to prevent the infected from leaving isolation. They also forcefully evacuated people from homes and carried out disinfection procedures. In lockdown areas, people were struggling to get supplies and were forced to wait till govern, ent's drop-offs arrived.