Mass Testing Held, Officials Say Latest COVID-19 Outbreak In Beijing Spreading Silently, Source Not Known

Illustrate COVID-19 in China. (Wikimedia Commons / Shwangtianyuan)

JAKARTA - Beijing residents stocked up on food and other supplies, as the city's biggest district began mass testing of all residents on Monday, stoking fears of a Shanghai-style lockdown after dozens of COVID-19 cases in the capital in recent days.

Authorities in Chaoyang, home to 3.45 million people, on Sunday evening ordered residents and those who work there to be tested three times this week, as Beijing warned the virus had "silently" spread in the city for about a week before being detected.

"I'm preparing for the worst", said a graduate student in the nearby Haidian district surnamed Zhang, who ordered dozens of snacks and 10 pounds of apples online.

City shoppers flock to shops and online platforms to buy leafy vegetables, fresh meat, instant noodles, and rolls of toilet paper.

In Shanghai, where most of its 25 million residents have been in lockdown for weeks, the main food supply bottleneck is the lack of enough couriers to make home deliveries, sparking anger among residents. Read more

Meanwhile, in Beijing, supermarket chains including Carrefour and Wumart said they had more than doubled inventory, while grocery-focused e-commerce platform Meituan increased stock and staff numbers for sorting and delivery, according to the Beijing Daily.

Since Friday, Beijing has reported 47 locally transmitted cases, with Chaoyang accounting for more than half.

Even in districts like Haidian which have not reported any cases in the current outbreak, there is a growing sense of unease over food supplies.

While China's capital city's caseload is small compared to those around the world and hundreds of thousands in Shanghai, Chaoyang District is telling residents to cut back on public activities, although most schools, shops, and offices remain open.

The Chaoyang District is home to many wealthy residents, mostly foreign embassies as well as entertainment venues and corporate headquarters. It has little manufacturing.

"The current outbreak in Beijing is spreading quietly from an unknown source and is growing rapidly", a city official said on Sunday.

More than a dozen buildings in Chaoyang have been locked down. For the rest of the district, people will be tested on Monday and again on Wednesday and Friday.

On Monday morning, people queued at an emergency testing site guarded by medical workers in protective suits. Under the mass testing campaign in China, several samples were tested together.

"I came on the recommended notice, at 6 AM for a test, to make sure I could work on time", said a man in his 30s queuing for the test at his housing complex.

In the afternoon, restrictions on movement in one part of Chaoyang were tightened, with residents being told not to leave the area at all and not to leave their local compound for non-essential reasons, state television reported.