China racing against time to stamp out Beijing Covid outbreak ahead of next week’s Winter Olympics

China is racing against time to stamp out a Covid outbreak in the capital Beijing before the winter Olympics next week.

Chinese authorities on Thursday imposed severe restrictions on movement between various areas in the capital. Officials in Fengtai district, south of Beijing, ordered residents to avoid going out for unnecessary reasons, and to test every day.

Fengtai has reported the highest number of cases during a current Beijing outbreak and had already locked down thousands of its residents. On Sunday, the neighbourhood said it would organise Covid-19 nucleic acid tests for all of its residents after reporting new cases.

The Olympic Winter Games start in Beijing on 4 February.

China has generally managed to keep the pandemic at bay compared with global infection rates. But cases started to rise throughout last month, reaching 361 confirmed infections on 27 December, the highest in a single day since early 2020.

Late on Wednesday, Beijing reported 75 new infections – a massive outbreak by China’s standards – which alerted officials trying to maintain the country’s now-famous “zero-Covid” policy throughout the games.

The stringent measures are sometimes seen as too strict. But they reflect concerns among officials worried that a similar outbreak to the one Japan suffered from during the summer Olympics held six months ago would hit China.

For example, Sanhe city, a few kilometres away from Beijing’s Central Business District, suspended all bus lines and closed communities in seven regions on Wednesday morning after reporting only one new Covid infection, according to Chinese tabloid Global Times.

Olympic visitors will be asked about their Covid history and present vaccination proof upon their arrival. If they show