Staying home in Shenzhen: why I will not take a Covid test every other day

One Shenzhen-based reporter describes what it’s like trying to avoid the city’s mass testing policy

Residents must show proof of a recent test to undertake a wide range of activities: and not having one can seem like a mark of shame

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Shenzhen conducted mass tests last month, and regular tests are still needed to perform a range of everyday activities. Photo: AP

Published: 6:00pm, 29 Apr 2022

Whenever someone asks to see my health code, I feel embarrassed. On the lower left-hand side of my code, in the “nucleic acid testing” section, a green code with the words “within a week” flashes up – not the blue “24-hour negative” or the purple “48-hour negative” codes needed to enter most public venues in Shenzhen.

Having a test result that is more than 48 hours old feels like a mark of shame, showing that I had been bad and did not follow neighbourhood orders.

While I mostly stay at home, recently I ran out of dish-washing sponges and had to venture out to restock at a small homeware shop nearby. The owner looked taken aback when he saw my health code, and told me I should get tested. He was kind enough to let me buy the sponges, though, whereas I would not even be able to enter a shopping mall or most larger outlets.

In early February, around Lunar New Year, the Omicron variant started spreading in this city. The following month, the local authorities announced a prompt lockdown, halting most activity and traffic in the city of 17 million.

During this period, three rounds of citywide mass screening were conducted, to quickly find positive cases and cut transmission links.

After the lockdown was lifted, however, the testing requirement stayed in place. Every day, neighbourhood staff would send a message to a residents’ WeChat group, detailing when and where PCR testing stations would be provided.