China expands Covid testing to almost all of Beijing’s 22 million residents

Beijing has quickly expanded its Covid-19 mass testing from one district to most of the city.

The residents of the most populous district in the Chinese capital were tested on Monday. By the end of the day, the city decided to conduct tests on 10 other districts and one economic development zone by Saturday, even though only a fraction of the results had come out.

There are fears of new Covid lockdowns in China.

The Chinese capital reported 33 new locally transmitted cases for 25 April, of which 32 weresymptomatic and one was not. Nineteen community infections were reported a day earlier.

Beijing decided to test 20 million people a few days after many infections were found. The mass testing drive in the city was launched in early April after about a month and a half of waiting.

It was decided to expand the scope of regional screening on the basis of the tests done in the district.

The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area will be the site of three rounds of tests from Tuesday to Saturday.

Beijing's latest Covid outbreak, while modest by global standards, is expected to deepen fears of a Shanghai-style lockdown of the Chinese capital, further clouding the country's economic outlook.

On Monday, Asian markets suffered their worst day in over a month, due to fears that Beijing was about to enter a lock down. The Chinese shares fell to a two-year low.