BEIJING (AP) — Beijing closed about 10% of stations on its vast subway network on Wednesday as an additional measure against the spread of the coronavirus.
The subway authority indicated in a brief message that 40 stations had been closed, most of them in the center, as part of epidemic control measures. No date for reopening service was given.
Beijing is on alert for COVID-19 infections. Restaurants and bars only serve takeout or delivery, gyms have closed and face-to-face classes have been suspended indefinitely. Major city tourist attractions such as the Forbidden City and Beijing Zoo have closed their indoor exhibition halls and are operating at partial capacity.
A few communities where cases were identified have been isolated. Residents of “controlled” areas have been ordered to stay within city limits, including 12 areas considered high risk and 35 intermediate risk.
City residents are required to take three tests throughout the week, in an effort by authorities to identify and isolate cases without imposing harsh lockdowns like those in Shanghai and elsewhere. Access to most public spaces requires a negative test within the previous 48 hours.
Beijing recorded just 51 new cases on Wednesday, five of them asymptomatic.
The station closures should have relatively little impact on life in the city, as China has several Labor Day holidays this week and many in the city of 21 million were already working from home.
In a downtown neighborhood considered high-risk, the streets were virtually empty Wednesday except for a few delivery men on motorcycles and the occasional pedestrian or car.
All businesses were closed except supermarkets and fruit and vegetable shops.
In general, residents in other neighborhoods avoid high-risk areas to avoid the possibility that the tracking apps installed on almost all cell phones will give them problems later in accessing public spaces.
Although it has adopted a lighter approach in Beijing, China has generally stuck to its zero-COVID policy, which restricts travel, imposes tests on entire cities and includes setting up huge compounds to try to isolate all those infected. Quarantines start with buildings and neighborhoods, but end with entire cities if the virus spreads.
The hardest-hit city has been Shanghai, where authorities were slowly lifting measures that confined most of its 26 million people for almost a month, and in some cases even longer.
Shanghai on Wednesday reported another 4,982 cases, all but 260 asymptomatic, as well as another 16 deaths. The figures continued to decline in China’s largest city, which recorded a daily high of 27,605 new cases on April 13.
The particularly low death toll in an outbreak of more than 400,000 cases in the city, home to the country’s largest stock exchange and largest port, has prompted questions about how those deaths are counted.
The harsh and criticized restrictions have led to shortages of food and medical care, as well as a broader – albeit likely temporary – impact on the national economy. Desperate and outraged citizens have confronted authorities at barricades and online, shouting from their windows and banging pots and pans in a sign of their frustration and outrage.
The communist authorities, who do not tolerate dissent, have tried to remove such protests from the internet and attributed the complaints, including the casseroles, to agitation caused by “foreign anti-Chinese forces”.
Within the reopening, Shanghai began this week to order health institutions to resume their services as soon as possible.
At the central Huashan Hospital, patients filled the waiting room and lines spilled out of some departments. Although the number of patients was down by about two-thirds from the previous wave, their condition tended to be more serious.
Huashan’s dermatology chief, Wu Wenyu, said he was treating patients who had delayed treatment due to the outbreak, some from cities outside of Shanghai.
“For example, a patient with shingles will be in a lot of pain. He may have been feeling really bad at home, but he couldn’t go to the hospital because of COVID,” Wu explained. “But now many patients come to see the doctor.”
Hospital administrators said they had scheduled the appointments to avoid crowds.
In some residential centers only one member of each family was allowed to go out twice a week to shop, in some cases also to collect items for neighbours.
Ling Jiazhao, manager of a supermarket in the eastern district of Pudong, said the store was limiting customers to 50 at a time.
“I hope it doesn’t cause congestion. Each community has two to four hours to shop, so most members will complete it within an hour,” Ling said.
