Beijing Goes to Extreme Lengths to Avoid Shanghai’s Covid Fate

China's capital is using an increasingly hardcore approach to contain its Covid-19 outbreak, from repeat testing of most residents to barring access to public places without a negative result as it seeks to avoid the chaos seen in Shanghai.

During the May Day holiday, Beijing stopped dining-in at restaurants, made entry into parks and monuments dependent on a negative Covid test, and closed gyms.

Authorities have also locked down apartment blocks, forcing some residents to stay in their units, not allowed out for groceries or exercise, and ordered another three rounds of mass testing to rein in an outbreak that added 62 new cases on Monday. There were 5,669 new cases in Shanghai.

The experience of the financial hub is a cautionary tale for Beijing officials who are trying to maintain China's Covid Zero strategy.

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Beijing has never been locked down during the Pandemic and authorities are aware of the message it would send if it were. Tougher measures have been put in place to avoid the fate of the city. Beijing's main districts have already undergone multiple rounds of mass testing, aimed at rooting out unknown chains of transmission and cases before they becomesymptomatic.

The destinations that used to be bustling with people during the holidays are now mostly empty. Many people were turned away from parks on the weekend because they failed to produce a negative Covid test.

After dining in was banned, some restaurants set up tables in their doorways to serve takeout. One coffee shop put stools outside to allow people to enjoy a drink under the shade of trees, only for police to arrive to break up the crowd.

There were lines of people waiting to be tested for Covid at the most common site. More than 400 cases have been recorded in the city since the outbreak started.

Read more about China's Lockdowns and the support they are giving to the economy.

The Global Times newspaper reported that a makeshift hospital that will be used to isolated mild Covid cases was reopened on Sunday. During its first Covid wave in Wuhan, China instituted a policy of quarying all people with the same disease to stop transmission. It is more difficult to execute with bigger and more consistent virus waves driven by more contagious variant like omicron.

With help from John and Dong Lyu.