Covid lockdown fears spark panic buying in Beijing as largest district begins mass testing

theguardian.com:

Beijingers were flooding supermarkets to stock up on food on Monday, hoping to avoid Shanghai-style shortages in the case of a city-wide lockdown as the capital records a growing number of Covid infections.

Authorities in Beijing have ordered 3.5 million residents and workers in the biggest district of Chaoyang to report for three coronavirus tests this week, after the area recorded 26 of Beijing’s 47 symptomatic cases since Friday.

On Monday, China reported 3,266 symptomatic cases and 20,454 asymptomatic cases. The majority were in Shanghai, where 19,455 were reported. Beijing reported 19 cases on Monday, including 14 symptomatic.

“The current outbreak in Beijing is spreading stealthily from sources that remained unknown yet and is developing rapidly,” a municipality official said on Sunday.

More than a dozen residential buildings were put under lockdown in Chaoyang, an affluent downtown area home to embassies and international businesses. “Chaoyang district is now the topmost focus for pandemic prevention,” said the city’s Communist party head, Cai Qi, according to the New York Times.

“Important pandemic measures cannot be left waiting till the next day … All at-risk sites and individuals involved in these cases must be checked that day.”

In Beijing the streets were quieter than usual, and restaurants less busy. During the Monday lunch hour hundreds queued at testing sites across Chaoyang, but wait times were usually less than an hour.

Chinese health authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of events in Shanghai, which resisted going into lockdown, before imposing partial city closures and theneventually a total lockdown.

Now in its fourth week, Shanghai’s lockdown has resulted in major food shortages and delivery delays, in