Beijing/Shanghai: Beijing shut scores of metro stations and bus routes and extended Covid-19 curbs on many public venues, focusing efforts to avoid the fate of Shanghai, where millions have been under strict lockdown for more than a month.
The city of Zhengzhou earlier also announced restrictions, joining dozens of big population centres under some form of lockdown as China seeks to control the spread. With dozens of new cases a day, Beijing is hoping mass testing will find and isolate the virus before it spreads. Twelve of 16 city districts held the second of three rounds of tests this week. The city of 22 million shut over 60 subway stations, about 15% of the network, and 158 bus routes, service providers said, most in the Chaoyang district at the epicentre of Beijing’s outbreak.
Beijing officials also said closures of schools, restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues - as well as some businesses and residential buildings - would extend beyond the April 30 May 4 Labour Day break, without giving a timeframe. People were encouraged to work from home rather than return to offices.
