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Desperate IKEA shoppers fight their way out of Shanghai store as security guards try to lock them inside after ONE customer came into contact with a Covid patient
- Security closed down the Xuhui district store, trying to lock the shoppers inside
- One customer had come into contact with a boy who tested positive for Covd-19
- Though no one inside the store had tested positive, authorities closed the doors
- Tens of millions of Chinese citizens were placed into lockdown earlier in the year
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IKEA shoppers fought their way past security guards trying to hem them into the store after one person came into contact with a Covid patient.
Video shows guards struggling to hold people behind double-doors leading to the Xuhui district of Shanghai before the crowd breaks past them and rushes through the opening.
A six-year-old boy had tested positive after returning to Shanghai from Lhasa in Tibet, Shanghai Health Commission deputy director Zhao Dandan said on Sunday.
One of the customers in the store had come into contact with the boy, prompting authorities to rush to close it down and lock the rest of the shoppers inside.
Health officials are under pressure to enforce China’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy which places residents into quarantine if an online app says they came into contact with someone who tested positive.
Tens of millions of Chinese citizens were placed into strict lockdown earlier in the year.
Video shows guards struggling to hold people behind a buckling door in the Xuhui district of Shanghai before the crowd breaks past them and rushes through the opening
IKEA shoppers were forced to fight their way past security guards trying to hem them into the store in compliance with China’s Covd-19 lockdown rules
One of the customers in the store had come into contact with a six-year-old boy who contracted Covid, prompting authorities to rush to close it down and lock the rest of the shoppers inside
The doors leading out of the IKEA store are pictured before the attempted shutdown
The IKEA Store in the Xuhui district of Shanghai before the Covid incident is pictured
Those who were at the Ikea store must now quarantine for two days followed by five days of health monitoring, Mr Zhao said, according to the BBC.
China is able to track who was at the store using its Covid-monitoring app, which all residents in China are legally required to carry.
China locked down Shanghai earlier in 2022, subjecting its largest financial centre to food rationing and months without sunlight.
Areas with zero Covid cases over a two-week stretch are allowed to engage in ‘appropriate activity’, China decaled in April.
Walking in the park, taking the bus and even getting into your own home now depends on the approval of Covid apps in some parts of China.
But even one Covid case can result in a city-wide lockdown, with four cities in Hainan starting lockdowns in August.
Beach resort Sanya has been locked down indefinitely since the start of the month, with nearby Haikou city closed for business from 7am to 8pm.
Those wanting to depart must test negative five times over seven days.
China reported more than 2,000 local Covid-19 cases on Friday after infections in China’s tourism hub Hainan crept higher, according to Bloomberg.
China has slipped into economic slowdown after month upon month of lockdown restrictions.
Factory and retail activity slowed in July, China’s data showed, even as the central bank unexpectedly cut key rates to support the economy.
Crowds of Hainan locals queue at a nucleic acid testing site amid Sanya’s lockdown measures
South China Sea resort Hainan is the country’s largest and most popular holiday destination