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Beijing steps up Covid screening to avoid Shanghai-like fate

Beijing steps up Covid screening to avoid Shanghai-like fate

Covid

Some schools and public spaces in Chinese capital Beijing were closed on Thursday as moof the Chinese capital's 22 million residents turned up for more mass COVID-19 testing aimed at averting a Shanghai-like lockdown.

Most citizens in Shanghai have been one month into stressful home isolation. They struggled to meet basic needs. The situation improved as number of new cases declined further

Fears were growing, however, that China would be trapped in a whack-a-mole game in coming months, lifting lockdowns in some places, while imposing others elsewhere, causing severe economic damage and exasperating its population.

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As Beijing rolled out three rounds of mass testing this week across most of the city, it locked down a number of residential compounds, offices and a university.

Also Read | China's Guangzhou city orders flight cancellation, mass testing after suspected COVID-19 case

Some schools, entertainment venues and tourist sites were also shut. Universal Studios in Beijing said it would require visitors from Friday to show negative test results before they could enter the theme park.

Andrew Ward, 36, a Canadian living in one of Beijing's narrow lanes of courtyard houses known as hutongs, was sent to quarantine in a hotel on Thursday even though his test results were negative.

On Wednesday, people in hazmat suits tested Ward at home after he was identified as a close contact of a COVID case.

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"I'm a little bit annoyed, because I spent all that money and time stockpiling food for being locked down at home," said Ward, who works at an international school.

(With inputs from agencies)