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‘I’d rather stay home’: Beijing residents push back at Covid rules as cases mount
- Infections are on the rise – along with concerns about being sent to unsanitary isolation centres
- Footage appears online of people questioning district-wide lockdowns
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Zhuang Pinghuiin Beijing
Residents in the Chinese capital have appealed for better-targeted Covid-19 responses as spiralling infections raise fears of tougher restrictions and worries about quarantine centres.
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The city reported 4,307 new local infections on Sunday morning, including 3,560 people without symptoms. The total was 65 per cent higher than a day earlier and more than double the case count reported on Friday.
Across the country, local infections rose to 39,506 cases on Sunday, nearly 5,000 more than the previous day.
At a meeting on Saturday, Beijing Communist Party secretary Yin Li urged lower-level officials to impose more resolute and decisive measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, including transferring people who test positive and their close contacts to quarantine facilities.
Yin also inspected a makeshift hospital, or fangcang, under construction in the Tongzhou district and urged officials to speed up construction.
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But many residents appear more concerned about the temporary hospitals than the virus.
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