Mass tests on 25 million inhabitants should be concluded today in Shanghai to verify what will happen next month, that is, whether the total lockdown activated by the local municipality since last March 28 will be confirmed or not.
Because over the weekend the new cases have increased, the pressure to contain the epidemic is not enough to block the growth of new infections, the city has reported over 19 thousand new positives and, unfortunately, also 51 deaths which – according to widespread rumors – would be only one minimal part of the actual ones.
Furthermore, the Omicron BA variant is also spreading to Beijing: last Sunday the Chinese capital recorded 11 cases in the Chaoyang district and, anticipating the potential outbreak of a new outbreak, immediately announced the start of three cycles. of mass testing on the approximately 3.5 million residents in that area. A huge area, a city within a city.
The hope is that the capital will be spared from the ferocious quarantine that Shanghai is bending in two, with entire condominium groups cordoned off, the difficulty of providing the basic needs of the population from food to medicines to drinking water to zero mobility. It is not even possible to work in the gardens around the city, the vegetables rot in the fields while supplies are blocked by the blackout of the port, the first in the world for traffic volumes.
Shanghai, the Covid prisoners
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In fact, panic scenes are also occurring in Beijing, with queues at shops and scenes of collective hysteria during testing. The same script already seen in Shanghai in the past three weeks also because there the authorities have further tightened the restrictions by warning that the strict measures would continue until the complete eradication of Covid-19, “neighborhood by neighborhood”.