Beijing locks down more people in China’s ‘zero-COVID’ fight

BEIJING (AP) — Authorities in Beijing are restricting more residents to their homes in a now 3-week-long effort to control a small but persistent COVID-19 outbreak in the Chinese capital. Seven adjoining areas in the city’s Fengtai district were designated lockdown zones for at least one week. The area is near a wholesale food market that was closed indefinitely on Saturday following the discovery of a cluster there. The added restrictions come as Shanghai slowly starts to ease a citywide lockdown that has trapped most of its population for more than six weeks. The twin outbreaks in Beijing and Shanghai have focused attention on whether China can sustain its strict “zero-COVID” approach.