Another Covid alarm in China, where a shopping center, complete with staff and customers still inside the structure, was "sealed" for fear of a new spread of infections.

Six new cases of positivity have been ascertained in Chaoyang and Haidian, local media reported, all close contacts of recently infected people in the northeastern province of Jilin. And the Raffles City shopping center in Dongcheng, a central area of the capital with offices and homes, was closed after the discovery that a close contact of an infected person had visited it.

The exits were closed and all staff and customers within the facility were subjected to nucleic acid testing, with long lines in the middle of the night and hundreds of people in masks waiting for testing.

Beijing health officials said in a briefing that more than 280 close contacts of the infected have already been identified, with nearly 12,000 people screened for the virus in Chaoyang and Haidian districts.

"This outbreak was sudden with many locations covering a large area, involving many people, putting prevention and control efforts in very difficult conditions," said city administration spokesman Xu Hejian. "Today is a crucial day and it is necessary to trace the source of the epidemic as soon as possible," he added. Five residential communities, an elementary school and two office complexes have been placed in lockdown, with tens of thousands of residents forced to mass testing.

Four of the diagnosed cases are members of the same family, while the other two are residents of Jilin and arrived in Beijing for a business trip, local health authorities explained.

As more and more countries are loosening anti-pandemic measures, China continues, therefore, to pursue the policy of "zero tolerance", with a squeeze on borders largely closed since the beginning of the pandemic.

(Unioneonline / vl)

© Riproduzione riservata