Multiple videos on social media showed customers screaming and shoving each other in an attempt to escape the building before closing the doors.
At a press conference on Sunday, Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission, said the “warehouse and the affected area” would be under “closed-loop” management for two days. People inside the ring must be quarantined for two days in a government facility and five days of health monitoring.
On Monday, the city’s health authorities reported six locally transmitted Covid-19 cases in Shanghai, of which five were asymptomatic.
The Chinese communications team at IKEA told CNN that an Ikea store in Shanghai’s Xuhui district was temporarily closed on Sunday and Monday in response to “epidemic prevention guidelines” from authorities and will reopen on Tuesday.
Shanghai, China’s financial capital of 25 million people, was shut down for two months earlier this year, leading to widespread public outrage as residents reported difficulties ordering daily necessities including food and medicine.
The lockdown was imposed under China’s strict no-virus policy, which relies on mass testing, mass quarantines and even confinement in entire cities to stem any resurgence of the virus.
Relying on mobile technology and big data, the Chinese government is using a color-based “health code” system to control people’s movements and limit the spread of the virus.
People in many Chinese cities must provide a green health QR code to ride public transportation and enter places including malls, gyms and restaurants. The system records their whereabouts and whether they have been in contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19 – those whose health codes turned red face near-certain confinement in quarantine facilities.
Sudden shutdowns are becoming a common occurrence in the country, with the public becoming increasingly frustrated with the strict rules as the economy struggles to adapt to the turmoil.
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