Families in Beijing rushed to stock up on food. Supermarkets stayed open late. Residents endured long lines for mandatory testing. China’s stock markets plunged.

A fresh coronavirus outbreak in China’s capital has raised concerns that Beijing could become, after Shanghai, the next Chinese megacity to put life on hold to contain the spread of the omicron variant. The central government has leaned heavily on lockdowns despite their high social and economic costs, in pursuit of the Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s “zero Covid” strategy of eliminating infections.

On Monday, the Beijing government said that 70 coronavirus cases had been found in Beijing since Friday. Nearly two-thirds have been in the district of Chaoyang, which ordered all 3.5 million residents to take three PCR tests over the next five days. In other cities, mass testing in response to initial coronavirus cases has sometimes been a prelude to stringent lockdowns, like the four-week one in Shanghai that has kindled widespread complaints from residents there.

The outbreak in Beijing, the seat of Communist Party power and a crowded metropolis, has added significance for Xi, who had ordered that the nation’s capital remain free of the virus. An extended lockdown there would add to the political and economic pressures on his government.

“Chaoyang district is now the topmost focus for pandemic prevention,” Cai Qi, the Communist Party secretary of Beijing, and a protégé of Xi’s, said in instructions cited in the official Beijing Daily newspaper on Sunday. Cai appeared determined to show that Beijing would not be hesitant about taking steps to stifle infections, which has been a criticism levelled by some at Shanghai.

“Important pandemic measures cannot be left waiting till the next day,” Cai added. “All at-risk sites and individuals involved in these cases must be checked that day.” The outbreak in Beijing is another blow to the already stumbling Chinese economy.

New York Times News Service