WASHINGTON — The “more targeted measures” deployed by Beijing that have quelled a flare-up of COVID-19 in less than four weeks “could hold lessons for other countries” in coping with a potential resurgence of the virus, said a report by Bloomberg News on Tuesday.
“Instead of resorting to a sudden across-the-board lockdown that risked reversing the gains made since China started reopening, Beijing deployed more targeted measures,” including targeted testing and lockdowns, said the report.
Hesitant to fully seal off Beijing, the city relied on “targeted testing at unprecedented speed,” it said.
Rather than confining everyone in Beijing to their homes, the authorities “just locked down apartment blocks and housing compounds close to the epicenter,” said the report.
“Makeshift test sites were set up in neighborhoods where cases were found to assist those showing symptoms,” the report added.
Rather than seal off the city’s borders like in Wuhan, Beijing imposed quarantine requirements “at destinations instead,” it said.
“China’s strategy is to remain circumspect,” said the report. “Even as infections taper, officials say that they won’t ease the restrictions until Beijing has seen two weeks without any new cases.”
Beijing on Monday reported no new confirmed domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases and one asymptomatic case, the municipal health commission said Tuesday.
From June 11 to July 6, the city reported 335 confirmed locally transmitted cases, of whom 320 were still hospitalized and 15 discharged from hospital after recovery. There were 31 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, the commission said.
