China reports 24,473 new cases of Covid-19; some Beijing businesses close their doors

China reported a slight decrease in new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, as numerous cities battled outbreaks and restaurants and other businesses in beijing closed their doors after authorities urged people to stay home for the weekend.

The authorities have recently tried to soften the impact of their harsh policy of zero covidwhich is battering the world’s second largest economy and sowing frustration and anger as the number of cases has risen to its highest since April.

Many businesses in the Chaoyang district, the main commercial and diplomatic area of beijinghave closed or have announced that they will only provide limited services.

A major office complex in the district of Dongcheng He said Chaoyang residents were not required to come to work from Monday and staff would be cut by 30%.

beijing reported 79 symptomatic and 436 asymptomatic cases for Friday, down from 100 symptomatic and 366 asymptomatic cases the day before, according to government data.

The authorities of beijing are on high alert in the hope of preventing the numerous outbreaks of the omicron variant in other cities spread to the capital.

Throughout the country, authorities reported 24,263 daily cases of internal transmission, of which 2,055 were symptomatic and 22,208 asymptomatic, down from 25,129 the previous day.

This figure is close to the highs reached when the authorities closed Shanghai, the financial center and the most populous city of Chinaat the beginning of the year.

This time, however, the cases are spread across many cities, where authorities are weighing the costs and benefits of easing policies that have hurt businesses.

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