Panicked shoppers rushed the exits of an Ikea branch in Shanghai on Saturday after the city’s health authorities ordered the store to close after a close contact of a Covid case was traced -19 at the location.
Several videos on social media showed customers screaming and pushing each other in an attempt to escape the building before the doors were closed.
CNN has reached out to Ikea’s press office in Shanghai for comment.
The Shanghai Ikea store went into lockdown after a close contact was traced to the location. (Supplied)
At a press conference on Sunday, Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission, said the “store and the affected area” would be under “closed-loop” management for two days.
People inside the loop must spend two days of quarantine and five days of health surveillance.
On Monday, the city’s health authorities reported six cases of locally transmitted Covid-19 in Shanghai, of which five were asymptomatic.
Customers headed for the exits in an attempt to leave before the store closed. (Twitter)
Shanghai, China’s financial capital and home to 25 million people, was locked down for two months earlier this year, sparking widespread public anger as residents reported difficulties in ordering daily essentials , including food and medicine.
The lockdown was imposed under China’s rigid zero-Covid policy, which relies on mass testing, extensive quarantines and even the lockdown of entire cities to eliminate any resurgence of the virus.
Relying on mobile technology and big data, the Chinese government is using a color-based “health code” system to monitor people’s movements and slow the spread of the virus.
People in many Chinese cities must present a green health QR code to use public transportation and enter places such as shopping 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 turn red face almost certain confinement in quarantine facilities.
Rapid lockdowns have become commonplace in the country, with the public growing increasingly frustrated with the strict rules as the economy struggles to adjust to the disruption.
Last week, more than 80,000 tourists were stranded on the popular resort island of Hainan after authorities announced lockdown measures to curb an outbreak of the virus.
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