Bar at centre of latest Beijing Covid cluster loses its licence as staff face criminal investigation
- The authorities in the Chinese capital say the Heaven Supermarket bar in the Sanlitun nightlife district did not enforce controls properly
- The cluster, which has been linked with 320 cases, is the latest outbreak linked to bars stretching from Hong Kong to Beijing
The Heaven Supermarket in Beijing’s busy entertainment area Sanlitun has been linked with 320 local infections that spread across the city in the past week. Authorities say it did not strictly follow epidemic control requirements such as checking customers’ test results and temperatures or scanning their health codes.
Before the latest cluster emerged, the capital was seeing a tapering off the outbreak that started at the end of April and forced restaurants to ban dining-in, shops to close and many people to work or study at home.
Now, with infections spreading across 14 districts of the city, students and school pupils – except those taking the high school entrance exam – have been ordered to remain at home while residential areas have been locked down.
Bars and clubs have come under particular scrutiny during the pandemic, with unmasked crowds presenting a higher risk of infections spreading.
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Beijing’s tentative reopening disrupted by new Covid outbreak linked to nightclub in Chinese capital