Outbreak in Eastern Chinese City Spreads to Beijing

Outbreak in Eastern Chinese City Spreads to Beijing
Staff members checking a unit at a temporary "Fire Eye" laboratory used for COVID-19 testing, at an exhibition center in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China on July 28, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
7/31/2021
Updated:
8/1/2021

A recent COVID-19 outbreak in China, first reported in an eastern Chinese city, has spread to Beijing and at least seven provinces. The Chinese regime’s strict response has placed hundreds of thousands of people in lockdown.

A cluster of infections in the city of Nanjing, linked to airport workers earlier this month, has reached the nation’s capital city, along with 21 other cities, as of July 30. The Delta variant has been identified in the recent CCP virus outbreak.

Health authorities in Beijing said that a couple returned to the capital city on July 28 infected with the CCP virus, which causes COVID-19. Authorities suggested that they had contracted the virus while traveling to the city of Zhangjiajie, another epicenter related to the Nanjing outbreak.

The CCP gave stay-at-home orders for the 41,000 people living in nine residential areas neighboring Beijing’s Changping district, where the couple lives.

The doctor of a community pharmacy in Changping District told The Epoch Times: “[We’re] sold out on 75 percent of medicinal alcohol and household disinfectants. The grocery shops’ shelves are empty.”

Local state-run media Beijing Daily said that health authorities woke residents up at midnight to have nucleic acid testing.

The report quoted local residents who recounted community officials knocking on doors at roughly 2 a.m. on July 29 to make them take the tests.

A shop owner in the Second District of Longyueyuan confirmed to The Epoch Times that people were tested during the night.

People from several other provinces who recently tested positive for the CCP virus reported a similar travel history of attending a theater performance in Zhangjiajie on July 22.

The 2,000 audience members who attended the performance on the evening of July 22 are considered to be at high risk of infection, according to local authorities.

Among them were three infected people from a family who didn’t show any symptoms and had traveled through Nanjing Lukou airport, where the first case was diagnosed.

Health workers wearing personal protective equipment stand at the entrance to the Legendale Hotel in the Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing on July 29, 2021, after China reported virus outbreaks in three cities, including the capital. ( Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)
Health workers wearing personal protective equipment stand at the entrance to the Legendale Hotel in the Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing on July 29, 2021, after China reported virus outbreaks in three cities, including the capital. ( Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Anxious Citizens in Lockdown

In Nanjing, the Chinese regime placed hundreds of thousands in lockdown.
“We’re locked at home and can go nowhere. People in my residential area received two doses of vaccines from May to June. My family and friends are all vaccinated, which was a requirement of local community staff,” an area resident surnamed Wang told The Epoch Times on July 29.

“But now it seems the vaccines do not work, and administered vaccines don’t mean anything.”

Living in a residential community where infected people have been reported, Wang and other residents are forced to stay at home and quarantine. He said there are several checkpoints in the community, and he has seen people in a neighboring building sent away to quarantine.

“I am wondering whether I am infected. I am preparing for the worst,” he said.

Another citizen, surnamed Chen, said there were infected cases in almost every residential area in the Lukou district. He’s unclear about the number of cases in his community.

“I have a newborn baby and have some milk powder left. But I don’t know what I can do if there is none left as time goes by,” he told The Epoch Times on July 29. “No shops in Lukou are allowed to open now.”

All flights from Nanjing airport are suspended until Aug. 11, according to local media. More than 9 million citizens have gone through two rounds of mass testing.
Residents queueing to receive a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, on July 21, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Residents queueing to receive a nucleic acid test for COVID-19 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, on July 21, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Hong Ning, Fang Xiao, Zhang Yujie contributed to this report.