Many housing compounds are requiring people to be tested. In answer to those asking about home testing, that’s not available/recognised here. You have to go to an official testing place but there are lots of them in #Beijing and they’re pretty efficient. #China
There was also a shopping centre requiring everyone to be tested in Shuangjing area yesterday. Sometimes these compounds and shopping centres have mass testing because an infected person, or a close contact of theirs, visited. #Beijing#China
This #Beijing outbreak, so far has 43 official symptomatic cases in total. Officials here said today the #Omicron cluster had been contained but that #Delta continues to spread. #Fengtai District is having mass testing; has reduced public transport & banned public gatherings.
Some of the compulsory testing could be because people infected (or close contacts of theirs) have visited an area, a shopping district or a nearby compound at some point. #Beijing#China
I was told by a pharmacist that all oral medication, including ordinary anti-histamines, now require a doctor’s prescription in #Beijing. #China
In #Beijing, apart from Shuangjing and Jianguomen areas, entire housing compounds are being tested near Chaoyang Park. Also, everyone in the entire district of Fengtai is being tested. #China
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After a weekend of mass #Covid testing in #Beijing, there is a lot more today. Whole housing communities are being told to be tested, in some cases twice in two days. Officials at one compound told me this was not because of infected residents but as a precaution. #China
You can see from the video above that there is a very high proportion of people wearing masks in #Beijing, even outdoors (in the case of this clip, 100% of people). #China
Beijing 2022 vs 2008: Two Olympics and two very different Chinas... a piece by me. bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…
Interested to hear from others in #China who were also here in 2008 what they make of the differences between the #Beijing of then and now and the Olympic ambiance of 2022 v 2008. (Below is my piece from today) “Two Olympics and two very different Chinas” bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…
BTW yes I realise the twitter link has 2018 instead of 2008 for some annoying reason. (I’m now talking to your subconscious: Unsee! Unsee!).
When athletes arrive in #China for the #Beijing2022 Winter Olympics they’ll be able to zoom out to the mountain venues inside a high-speed train bubble keeping them separate from the general public. Their whole time in China will be in a #COVID19 bubble so no quarantine necessary
Visiting athletes will get a taste of the arid beauty of the landscape north of #Beijing. In #China people live everywhere and here too there are new apartment blocks going up.
Well the last train outta Taizicheng’s almost gone. From tomorrow this high-speed train station in the heart of the Chongli mountain area will be closed to the general public & only serve #Beijing2022 athletes, officials etc til the Winter Olympics is over so get out while ya can
One of the factors leading to more English language stand up comedy in #China has been the existence of English language open mic nights. This is how @AlexandraShi who features in our story got her start. bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…
#Xian#COVID19 outbreak update. Official numbers are showing no sign yet of a downward curve in infection numbers in the city. In recent weeks, the official figures have recorded around a thousand infections with symptoms which must mean no easing up on the lockdown there yet?
Today another 155 new local #COVID19 infections with symptoms in #China’s Shaanxi Province. This takes the official total, since 9th of December, to 1117 in #Xian. No easing of a strict lockdown in that northern Chinese city yet with those numbers.
The #Xian lockdown has also become more strict in recent days. Officials have stopped letting 1 person from each household leaving to buy supplies every 2 days. Because the announcement came quickly people are all over social media there saying they’re desperately short of food.