After Shanghai, Beijing: a comprehensive test to assess the severe closure

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Mass tests of 25 million residents must be completed today in Shanghai to check what will happen next month, that is, whether or not the complete lockdown that has been activated by the local municipality since last March 28 will be confirmed.

As new cases increase over the weekend and the pressure to contain the epidemic is not enough to prevent the growth of new infections, the city has reported more than 19,000 new positive results and, unfortunately, also 51 deaths which – according to widespread rumors – will be only one fraction of the actual parts.

Moreover, the Omicron BA variant is also spreading to Beijing: last Sunday, the Chinese capital recorded 11 cases in the Chaoyang District, and, anticipating a possible spread of a new outbreak, immediately announced the start of three cycles. million residents in that area. Huge space, city within a city.

The hope is that the capital will survive the ferocious quarantine in which Shanghai is bent in two, with entire building blocks being cordoned off, and the difficulty of providing the population with basic needs from food to medicine to drinking water to a lack of mobility. It’s not even possible to work in the gardens around the city, vegetables are rotting in the fields while supplies are cut off by power outages at the port, a world first for traffic volume.

In fact, scenes of panic also occur in Beijing, with queues in stores and scenes of mass hysteria during the audition. The same scenario has already been seen in Shanghai in the past three weeks also because the authorities there have tightened restrictions by warning that the strict measures will continue until Covid-19 is completely eradicated, “neighborhood by neighborhood”.