Thread by @DrEricDing

BREAKING—Beijing officials are recommending all residents of Chaoyang (mega district of 4+ million) to stay home on Monday—do not go indoors publicly, and do not leave the area. #BF7 variant suspected. China had its first death from #COVID19 since May. 🧵reuters.com/world/china/be… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

2) Beijing is also recommending wearing the public to wear masks in public. And they mentioned the “highly contagious” #BF7 variant of Omicron being a potential factor.

#BringBackMasks

news.ifeng.com/c/8L69jLZd8as

news.cctv.com/2022/11/20/ART…

3) crazy how @Twitter put a warning label on my original post about CCTV website even though the Reuters version has the exact same info. reuters.com/world/china/be…

4) here is what Beijing is doing—“Strict community (village) bayonet management, all entering personnel to implement epidemic prevention measures such as scanning code temperature measurement, checking nucleic acid negative certificates, etc.”

5) “the same time, we will make every effort to ensure residents' livelihood services such as living and medical treatment. Focus on ensuring the needs of quarantined residents for medical treatment and drug purchase, & require all medical institutions to open as much as possible

6) “Focus on ensuring the supply of materials in high-risk areas, timely provide vegetable packs, epidemic prevention kits, etc., and ensure smooth logistics by opening a "white list".”

7) “Focus on residents' epidemic-related demands, respond to solutions in a timely manner, and care for key groups such as the elderly, pregnant women, and patients with underlying diseases.”

mp.weixin.qq.com/s/wHLz4ftcW3O4…

8) folks—why is this significant? Chaoyang district of Beijing is the most populace district and is home to almost all the foreign Embassies and is a major economic center. Thus it’s a huge move to do this in its capitol city. reuters.com/world/china/ch…

9) Meanwhile, the #BF7 is ~8% of total variants. #BQ1 and #BQ11 are more prevalent and rising, while “older” #BA5 is in rapid decline. #BF7 is holding steady at ~8% for 3 weeks, but not really declining. covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra…