Covid curbs in Beijing trigger panic buying

Beijing, November 25

Residents of some parts of China’s capital were emptying supermarket shelves and overwhelming delivery apps Friday as the city government ordered faster construction of Covid-19 quarantine centres and field hospitals.

Uncertainty and scattered, unconfirmed reports of lockdowns in at least some Beijing districts have fuelled demand for food and other supplies, something not seen in the city for months.

Large numbers of shoppers in the city’s northern suburbs left shelves bare in markets, but customers were relatively few in the centre of the city of 21 million. 0Daily cases of Covid-19 across the country are hitting records, with 32,695 reported on Friday. Of those, 1,860 were in Beijing, the majority of them asymptomatic. Quarantine centres and field hospitals have been hastily thrown up. — AP