Adhering strongly to its ‘zero COVID
policy, China will have a muted Labor Day ‘celebration’ this year as Beijing
tightens COVID restrictions on the very first day (May 1) of the five-day
holidays.

Beijing has announced that all
schools and public spaces, including entertainment venues, gyms, and theatres
will remain closed until May 4 in order to prevent locals from gathering in
crowds.

The five-day celebration is generally one
of China’s busiest travel times. Hence, even once the holidays are over, residents
in Beijing are mandated to give nucleic-acid test results within seven days,
according to the local authorities.

Also read: COVID-19 ‘pandemic phase’ over for the US: Dr Anthony Fauci

According to a message on the city’s
official WeChat page, all citizens will be required to produce a negative Covid
test
done within the last 7 days to be able to enter public places and to ride
public transportation, from May 5 onwards.

The restrictions will also apply to
people staying indoors but not in their own homes. Those who wish to stay
at hotels and BNBs are also required to take a nucleic acid test
result within 48 hours.

Neither Beijing nor Shanghai officials
have revealed any news about the expected schedule as to when the cities will
go back to opening up, like other countries.

Also read: Is COVID-19 pushing China into the dark ages of planned economy?

On Saturday, China recorded more than 10,700
domestic COVID-19 infections, with Shanghai claiming the majority of
those.

On becoming the epicenter of the latest
COVID-19 outbreak, cities like Beijing and Shanghai have been
overly cautious and have imposed stringent restrictions, despite rising
economic costs and anger among the masses.

Also read: Explained: How China is using metal barriers to fight COVID-19

Burdened with the highly
communicable Omicron variant, officials have reinforced their zero-COVID
policy, focusing on mass testing and lockdowns to eliminate large
groups of infected people.

In order to facilitate this, residents
will be able to get free COVID-19 testing starting Tuesday, according to city
officials.