Where were you April 21 at 4:17 p.m.? Beijing ramps up COVID tracking.
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Ann Scott Tyson Staff writer
| Beijing
Workers built a giant, cloud-shaped display of 280,000 bursting red and yellow flowers in Tiananmen Square for this week鈥檚 May Day holiday, but stringent new controls to curb Beijing鈥檚 biggest COVID-19 outbreak meant relatively few people came to admire it.聽
Overnight, Beijing required visitors to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 48 hours to enter the square 鈥� as well as parks and other popular public places 鈥� leading many residents to stay home or be turned away. With restaurants, gyms, shopping malls, theaters, galleries, and other entertainment spots shuttered, Beijingers had limited options for their days off.聽
鈥淲e can鈥檛 go anywhere,鈥� says Mr. Yu, a state-enterprise employee, on a walk with his girlfriend down a somewhat deserted main street. 鈥淲e had plans for the holiday, but everything is closed,鈥� he says, asking to withhold his first name.聽
Why We Wrote This
China鈥檚 zero-COVID-19 regime combines elements that are at once Orwellian and paternalistic. People鈥檚 responses to them reveal a lot about Beijingers鈥� attitudes toward authority.
Improvising, hundreds of vacationers gathered for picnics on Monday along the tree-lined Liangma River in northeast Beijing. But police cracked down on the gatherings the next day, warning outdoor diners they鈥檇 be punished.
Beijing鈥檚 swift and strict containment drive has so far allowed the city of 21 million people to stop short of a full-scale lockdown like the one that immobilized Shanghai. Still, thousands of people are quarantined and nearly 50 neighborhoods in the capital are now labeled high- or medium-risk and sealed off. At the same time, ever-tightening restrictions on movement and activities are seriously boxing in the rest of the population. Beijing on Wednesday extended school closures, told employees to work from home, shut down hundreds of bus and subway stations,聽 and blocked people in risk groups from leaving Beijing.
Indeed, as Beijing and other big cities in China struggle to uphold Chinese leader Xi Jinping鈥檚 zero-COVID-19 policy, authorities are using a combination of persuasion, coercion, and appeals for self-sacrifice to bring about public compliance.聽
On Thursday, Mr. Xi underscored that China must stick with its aggressive controls, which have succeeded in keeping China鈥檚 overall case and fatality levels low by global standards. The Communist Party鈥檚 powerful Politburo Standing Committee stressed the need to 鈥渞esolutely fight against all words and deeds that distort, doubt and deny our country鈥檚 anti-epidemic policies,鈥� according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Extreme contact tracing
The capital city鈥檚 official toolkit for controlling COVID-19 outbreaks now includes near-constant testing, labyrinthine contact tracing diagrams, minute-by-minute location tracking, and dreaded 鈥渉ealth code鈥� pop-up windows, which block the green codes people need to move around the city.
Such tools are the key to dividing the population based on COVID-19 risk: Those who test positive or are possibly exposed must go to hospitals and centralized quarantine facilities or be locked down at home. Those who continuously test negative and manage to steer clear of risky people and places can keep circulating.
The outbreak, which began April 22 and has surpassed 600 cases, now impacts 15 of Beijing鈥檚 16 districts, according to the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Almost daily, Beijing publishes long, detailed lists of new COVID-19 risk locations. Officials ask citizens to self-report should their paths cross those of an infected person 鈥� at Shanxi Noodle House in Xiaogaoshe Village for two minutes between 4:15 and 4:17 p.m. on April 21, for instance.
鈥淔riends 鈥� anyone who meets the time and space of the following itinerary 鈥� please take the initiative to report 鈥� and cooperate with centralized isolation,鈥� reads one typical announcement.
At a daily press briefing, Beijing officials also list, by number, every new positive case in the city, with details of where the person lives, works, their relationships, and health status. They publish maze-like contact tracing flow charts, with bubbles for each case, highlighting transmission chains and links to risky areas of the city.
鈥淚 definitely avoid the high risk and medium risk areas,鈥� says Yu Lei, a Beijing resident and college graduate, who says the outbreak has complicated her job search. 鈥淚f everyone is determined and avoids each other, we can stop more outbreaks and control it really well.鈥�
Others largely ignore such case tracking. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 pay much attention to it,鈥� says Daniel, an office worker, typing on his computer at a park bench. 鈥淚f we want to go to an area and it鈥檚 locked down, we can鈥檛 go there,鈥� he says, asking to withhold his last name.
All the testing, tracking, and quarantine requirements come together in Beijing鈥檚 鈥渉ealth treasure鈥� app. The app registers a person鈥檚 identity card, cellphone number, test and vaccination details, and travel history with the Beijing Big Data Center, and turns green, yellow, or red based on the person鈥檚 health status. Expanded restrictions have triggered a flurry of calls to Beijing鈥檚 CDC hotline over health code problems and app glitches, including pop-up windows that won鈥檛 go away after testing.
Heroic Case 218
Beijing鈥檚 propaganda apparatus is working overtime to highlight exemplary acts by citizens and party members fighting COVID-19. Case 218, an interior decorator, got a call at work one morning from Beijing鈥檚 CDC, telling him he was a close contact. But instead of returning to his housing compound, he sat outside in his car for 11 hours until he was tested and taken away to quarantine 鈥� sparing his entire community from lockdown.聽
Case 218 鈥減rotected many strangers, so they were not disturbed by the spread of the virus,鈥� said an article in the Beijing Evening News. In contrast, it said others 鈥渄isregard local prevention 鈥� go to the card room to play mahjong every day without wearing a mask 鈥� organize weddings and funerals 鈥� and do everything possible to conceal and falsify the situation.鈥�
Undercover reporters for state media also expose and scold bad behavior, such as a recent television news report that filmed unaware Beijingers panic-buying fruits and vegetables and jamming together in checkout lines.
Overall, Beijing鈥檚 approach has been to tighten controls gradually and move from voluntary to mandatory. Residents were first asked to mass test, then told that if they don鈥檛, pop-ups will block their green health codes. This Wednesday, the city started requiring weekly testing for access to public facilities and transportation.
While some Beijingers complain testing is a hassle, most accept the need for it and appreciate the government footing the bill.
鈥淭he tests are free, and they are testing a lot to quickly clear the outbreak,鈥� says Ms. Zhu, who is working from home while helping her second grade son with online studies.聽
Beijing has learned from problems exposed in Shanghai, she says, withholding her first name. 鈥淪hanghai wasted a lot of time, but here the city reacted quickly and the measures are relatively strict, so this should be over very quickly.鈥�
Taking another lesson from Shanghai, where the separation of children and parents for quarantine caused outrage, Beijing agreed to allow a family member to accompany each quarantined child. 鈥淩ather than saying that children are being quarantined, it is better to say they are on a 鈥榯rip,鈥欌�� advises an official release from Beijing鈥檚 Fengtai District. Hundreds of children are now under quarantine in Beijing.
For now, Beijingers are adjusting to the new constraints 鈥� and tensions 鈥� but hoping for relief soon. 鈥淲e need to let the girls relax a bit,鈥� says Song Huidi, sitting under a tree on a blanket and chatting with her friend while their school-age daughters draw. 鈥淭his shouldn鈥檛 last long.鈥�
