Covid curbs in Beijing since Thursday, with at least two districts closing some entertainment venues after a flare-up in a neighbourhood full of nightlife, shopping and embassies.
While China's infection rate is low by global standards, it maintains a zero-Covid policy, citing the need to protect the elderly and the medical system, even as other countries try to live with the virus.
So far, the country of 1.4 billion has seen just 5,226 deaths from Covid-19. Beijing authorities said on Saturday that all 61 new cases uncovered in the city on Friday had either visited the Heaven Supermarket Bar or had links to it. "The recent outbreak ...
is strongly explosive in nature and widespread in scope," Xu Hejian, spokesperson of the Beijing municipal government, told a news briefing.