The risk of the epidemic spreading in Beijing, people rushed to buy goods to stock up

Medical staff help a patient fill out information with a smartphone at a makeshift hospital in Shanghai, eastern China, April 23, 2022 – Photo: XINHUA

The epidemic spreads, will block Beijing?

China’s capital Beijing is facing the risk of a widespread COVID-19 epidemic after consecutively detecting many new cases of community transmission in the past few days. Faced with this situation, Beijing health authorities have quickly strengthened epidemic prevention measures.

Accordingly, Trieu Duong district, home to about 3.5 million residents, will deploy 3 batches of mass nucleic acid tests, starting from April 25, after this district recorded a large number of new COVID-19 cases. in the most recent outbreak in the Chinese capital.

The Chaoyang District Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on April 24 that it would conduct testing for people living and working in this district on April 25, 27 and 29.

Trieu Duong reported 11 new cases of COVID-19 from the afternoon of April 23 to the afternoon of April 24, bringing the total number of cases in this district since April 22 to 26, including students and teachers of a middle school. elementary school with their relatives. A total of 1,230 close contacts of the cases have been quarantined.

Two residential areas in Chaoyang District on April 24 were classified as high-risk and medium-risk areas, respectively. People in Chaoyang are encouraged to get tested before going to work on April 25 and minimize social activities.

Beijing has continuously detected many new cases of community transmission in the past few days – Photo: AP

The epidemic prevention and control agency of Trieu Duong district said the expanded testing was to prevent and cut off the increase in the number of new cases of COVID-19, thereby protecting people’s health and lives.

According to medical experts, Beijing has taken effective and strong measures to prevent the situation from getting worse, and the results of the mass nucleic acid test will be the indicator for the capital city to decide. Decide whether to take additional anti-epidemic measures such as blocking some areas.

Shoppers panic because afraid to become ‘Shanghai Monday’

In the context of an increase in the number of cases, some areas in Chaoyang experienced panic shopping and some markets were temporarily short of fresh vegetables on the afternoon of April 24.

To defuse the situation, fresh food e-commerce companies in Beijing immediately activated the emergency response mechanism to allocate and increase the supply of goods, including meat, poultry, eggs. , milk, fresh fruits and vegetables.

However, many food e-commerce platforms reported delivery shortages when people tried to buy food online late on April 24.

In a press conference on April 24, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce emphasized that there is enough supply of daily necessities in the city, and the transportation routes to the supply of goods are operating normally. The agency called on major e-commerce platforms to increase stockpiles and add staff to meet increased consumer demand.

Almost empty shelves at a supermarket in Chaoyang district, Beijing, China, April 24, 2022 – Photo: REUTERS

Experts say the response of the Beijing public is one of the lessons learned from the outbreak in Shanghai, where people are suffering from food shortages in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

Speaking to Chinese media, a senior expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who declined to be named, said that by drawing lessons from the outbreak in Shanghai and in other provinces, Beijing will be able to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic more effectively.

According to this expert, since the outbreak of the epidemic again, Beijing has taken “robust” epidemic prevention and control measures to prevent the epidemic from spreading, including testing nucleic acids as much as possible. , conduct very precise epidemiological investigations and blockade any areas at risk of disease.

As for whether Beijing will blockade the entire city or block it partially, this expert said it depends on the extent of the infection in Beijing. “When the results of the nucleic acid test in Chaoyang and other regions are released, it will give us a picture of the overall epidemic situation in Beijing. More measures will be taken,” he said. show later”.

Since April 22, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Beijing has reached 42, involving 6 districts of the city. Among the cases were teachers, students, interior decorators, a delivery man and a chef who worked at a restaurant, diners and elderly people in a tour group.

At a press conference on April 24, Beijing city government officials said that the SARS-CoV-2 virus had quietly spread in the city for a week and many new infections had been detected.

Shanghai records 51 more deaths

Captain Wang Ling inspects a helicopter carrying medical supplies before taking off in Songjiang district, Shanghai on April 24 – Photo: XINHUA

Meanwhile, deputy director of the Beijing City Center for Disease Control and Prevention Pang Xinghuo warned of the risk of an increase in the number of cases in the Chinese capital due to imported cases, outbreaks outbreak outside Beijing as well as an increase in the flow of people during the upcoming May 1 holiday.

Ms. Pang Tinh Hoa said that the genetic sequencing samples of four COVID-19 cases in Beijing showed that these cases were infected with the Omicron variant and were related to cluster outbreaks outside of Beijing. Nearly a quarter of those infected are aged 60 or older, and 50% of these are unvaccinated.

On the same day, the Shanghai city government announced that it had recorded 51 deaths from COVID-19 on April 24, up from 39 cases recorded a day earlier.

The city also recorded 2,472 new symptomatic COVID-19 cases, up from 1,401 a day earlier. In addition, 16,983 new asymptomatic cases were recorded in Shanghai, down from 19,657 cases a day earlier.

Currently, Shanghai is the site of the strongest outbreak of COVID-19 in China.