Beijing’s social restrictions are set to stay after a new community case of Covid-19 was reported in the Chinese capital following three days in a row of no infections outside quarantine. Municipal authorities said residents must be “on guard at all times”, despite a general fall in the number of cases. In all, 18 new cases were reported – 17 among people already in quarantine and one from community screenings in Fengtai district. The new local case means Beijing’s dine-in ban remains in place but takeaways are still allowed. Restaurant owners had been looking forward to the resumption of dine-in services, including the operator of a Sichuan-style restaurant in Chaoyang district who said he understood they might be allowed to reopen from Tuesday. He said he opened the restaurant in April, less than three weeks before Beijing banned dine-in services, and revenue in May had fallen to about a third of that a month earlier. “We’ve been selling takeaways for a month,” he said. “Life is so hard.” He said he and his wife tried to sell some beefcakes near their restaurant but urban management officials told them they were not allowed to sell things on the street. However, residents in Chaoyang district will be allowed to return to the office , with the exception to those living in specific neighbourhoods or compounds under lockdown. The district, where the city’s first cases were detected, has not reported an infection for a week, and the last case was found among people in quarantine. The measures are part of national efforts to cut off coronavirus transmission chains known as China’s “dynamic zero-Covid” policy. But the restrictions have been criticised. The father of a 32-year-old man in Shunyi district said last week that his son died on May 11 after waiting just under an hour for an ambulance. Beijing’s emergency services told the father that Covid-19 restrictions meant they had to contact different hospitals to confirm if they could admit patients. The ambulance took 54 minutes to arrive, by which time the son had collapsed. He was declared dead two hours later at the Hospital of Shunyi District. Shunyi health officials announced on Sunday that four cadres, including an emergency service doctor, were disciplined for their roles in the incident.
