Coronavirus: I’ve endured 20 days of lockdown in Beijing. No one can tell me when it will end
- Some residents in Beijing’s most populous district, Chaoyang, have endured 20 days of lockdown and at least 10 Covid-19 tests since April 25
- Reporter Luna Sun describes the anxiety and desperation of many people who have no idea when or under what circumstances they will be freed
I check my calendar to see what day it is and count how long I have been in lockdown.
It has been 20 days and 11 Covid-19 tests since April 25, when Beijing locked down part of its most populous district, Chaoyang, after a handful of cases were reported.
Unfortunately, the area in question is where I live, a largely residential zone of about five square kilometres in the district’s southwest, with roughly 300,000 residents.
On the day my neighbourhood was locked down, a police car and security guards came after 9pm to barricade the streets. Labelled as a temporary control zone, people were not allowed to enter or leave their homes, except for delivery drivers.
In the beginning, we were optimistic. Despite being near to reported cases, my neighbourhood had never returned a positive result.
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How a Beijing residential compound lives through an Omicron lockdown
Authorities said the temporary lockdown would be lifted if there were no positive cases after two rounds of mass testing on April 25 and 27.