Beijing residents urged to work from home

The streets of Beijing’s commercial area were desolate on Thursday as the authorities urged workers to return to work remotely, with hundreds of metro stations closed following a national holiday marred by coronavirus curtailments.

Chinese officials have maintained its zero-COVID policy of lockdowns and widespread testing as they confront the worst epidemic since the pandemic’s inception, with entire neighbourhoods in Beijing shut off over a few of illnesses.

On Thursday, Beijing recorded 50 local cases, a day after advising residents of Chaoyang, the city’s most populated district, to work from home.

Those who needed to visit their offices among the district’s 3.5 million people were advised to drive themselves and avoid crowds.

At least one other Beijing district has similarly urged citizens to work from home, despite the fact that dozens of metro stations around the capital remain blocked. Open eateries exclusively serve takeout.

However, Feng Yinhao, a massage parlour employee in Chaoyang district, believes Beijing is “still normal” in comparison to the country’s largest metropolis, Shanghai.

Authorities have been treading carefully since a lengthy lockdown in the southern financial hub resulted in food shortages and public outrage.

“Residents can tolerate the condition today,” Zhan Jun, a Chaoyang resident, told AFP.

However, “if it’s like in Shanghai… if it’s too harsh, everything will sound different.”

On Thursday, Shanghai, the epicentre of the new outbreak, reported more than 4,600 mainly asymptomatic illnesses and 13 additional deaths.

The urge to work from home came after an unusually quiet Labor Day weekend, with the capital increasing COVID testing procedures for entering public venues, discouraging travel, and closing gyms.

According to official figures, domestic tourist earnings from the five-day holiday was down by more than 40% from the previous year.

As of May 3, analysts from Nomura said that dozens of Chinese cities were instituting complete or partial lockdowns or movement restrictions.

The economic impact of the strict restrictions has begun to weigh, with independent statistics released on Thursday indicating that activity in China’s services sector fell to its second-lowest level on record in April.

Meanwhile, the instance of a Beijing COVID sufferer who infected dozens of others through the city’s public restrooms caused laughter on social media, with Weibo users uploading photographs of one public lavatory that now looked to need documentation of a recent COVID test to enter.

“Don’t go to the bathroom unless absolutely essential; apply for a one-day loo permit with your 24-hour PCR test with your neighbourhood committee,” one user on the Twitter-like service joked.

However, certain restrictions are being relaxed, with Beijing announcing on Wednesday that overseas travellers can be discharged from quarantine after 10 days in a centralised facility and a week of home isolation, down from a total of 21 days.

According to government spokesperson Xu Hejian, the change was made owing of the Omicron variant’s shorter incubation period and typically milder symptoms.

According to authorities, close contacts of confirmed patients would also have a shorter centralised quarantine.

Also Read

Togo’s president agreed to serve as a mediator

Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe has agreed to act as a mediator in...