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Foreign businesses in Chinese capital keep wary eye on Covid cases as fears of lockdown grow
- Mass testing under way across most of Beijing and people told to stay at home
- Lockdown in Shanghai sent shock waves through the communities in Beijing, EU business leader says
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Foreign businesspeople are keeping a close watch on Beijing’s handling of a growing Covid-19 outbreak, with mass testing across much of the capital fanning fears of a lockdown.
The municipal government announced on Monday that 11 of the city’s 16 districts would undergo three rounds of nucleic acid testing from Tuesday and residents should limit their movements and avoid social contact until the results were in.
Since Friday, Beijing has recorded 92 community cases. Many of the early cases were found in Chaoyang district, part of which has been sealed off as a “temporary control area”.
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Joerg Wuttke, president of European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said he expected the impact of controls in Beijing to be less severe than those in Shanghai because the capital had fewer factories, requiring fewer people on site to keep machines running.
But the business community had seen the disruptions to business and life in Shanghai.
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“The emotional effect is fear. Lockdown in Shanghai has sent shock waves through the communities in Beijing. People can’t help asking what would be next,” Wuttke said.
“We hope Beijing will be able to handle the pandemic much better as it does not want to see people yelling from their balconies in the run-up to the 20th party congress,” he said, referring to the Communist Party’s national congress expected in the autumn.
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