Beijing on Wednesday shut down 40 subway stations -- about 10 per cent of the total -- and 158 bus routes metro stations besides schools, restaurants and businesses and ordered daily COVID-19 testing of its 21 million residents as the Chinese capital ramped up measures to prevent the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant which has brought the financial hub Shanghai to halt for over a month.
Beijing reported 53 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total to over 500 cases as the capital continues enforcing strict anti-virus measures.
Please click on the images for a look at the situation in Beijing.
IMAGE: A worker cleans a street public toilet outside a residential area under lockdown amid the coronavirus disease outbreak in Beijing. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
IMAGE: A courier makes a delivery over a fence of a residential area under lockdown in Beijing. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
IMAGE: A man passes a bag with vegetables to a resident through a gap in a barricade sealing off a residential area under lockdown in Beijing. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
IMAGE: Couriers look at their phones as they deliver packages to a barricaded residential area under lockdown in Beijing. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
IMAGE: A closed subway station in Beijing. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
IMAGE: Residents wearing face masks exercise outdoor in Beijing. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
IMAGE: Workers wearing PPE install a barricade around a residential area in Beijing. Photograph: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
IMAGE: Workers in protective suits stand next to people lining up a makeshift nucleic acid testing site during a mass testing for COVID-19 in the Chaoyang district of Beijing. Photograph: Alessandro Diviggiano/Reuters
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
