Apr 25, 2022 - Economy
Beijing braces for lockdown as COVID cases rise
- Hope King, author ofAxios Closer
People queue up at a COVID-19 nucleic acid testing site on April 25 in Beijing. Photo: Hou Yu/China News Service via Getty Images
China’s capital, Beijing, could be facing a strict lockdown as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
Why it matters: Authorities in the country have not stepped away from their "zero COVID" policy, which has placed roughly 200 million people in a full or partial lockdown.
State of play: Beijing officials have started mass testing while residents have started stocking up on food and supplies.
- The efforts come as Shanghai, the country’s most populous city, remains in a state of lockdown, with new measures like fencing around “sealed areas” popping up.
The big picture: Any new lockdowns will add to supply chain issues and limit the country’s potential growth this year.
- China is the largest single driver of global economic growth, so the country's woes will quickly become the world's problem, Axios’ Matt Phillips and Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian have written previously.
Go deeper: China is in the middle of its worst known COVID outbreak