Schools in Beijing ordered to remain closed
Schools in Beijing have been ordered to remain closed to students in an attempt to eliminate the latest outbreak of Covid-19. Classes had been expected to return after the Labour Day holiday but have now been suspended for at least another week. Officials in the capital also announced the suspension of dine-in restaurants, bars and indoor entertainment will continue indefinitely. Beijing closed 60 subway stations on Wednesday to prevent the possibility of the virus spreading. Fifty new Covid-19 infections were reported in Beijing on Thursday, eight of them asymptomatic. Cases in Shanghai continued to fall further to 4,651. Across the mainland, the National Health Commission reported a total of 5,038 local infections. The impact of the current Omicron driven wave of the pandemic on the economy was highlighted by new official figures on the Labour Day holiday that ended on Wednesday. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that Chinese domestic travel revenue tumbled 43 percent to 64.7 billion yuan (US$9.78 billion), as tightening Covid prevention measures being rolled out across the country hit consumption. The ministry said 160 million trips were made over the five-day holiday, 30 percent fewer than last year. The Labour Day holiday is traditionally one of China's busiest tourist seasons as spring moves into summer but it was disrupted this year by efforts to fight China's largest Covid outbreak since the virus emerged in Wuhan in late 2019.  (AP, Reuters)