Millions in Beijing urged to work from home to fight Covid

A man rides a shared bicycle past a closed subway station in Beijing during morning rush hour following a work-from-home order for residents of Chaoyang district amid the Covid-19 outbreak on May 5, 2022. - Reuters

BEIJING (AFP): The streets of Beijing's business district were deserted on Thursday (May 5) as the government called for people to return to work remotely, with scores of subway stations shut after a national holiday muted by coronavirus curbs.

Chinese authorities have stuck to their zero-Covid policy of lockdowns and mass testing as they battle the biggest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic, with entire neighbourhoods in the capital sealed over handfuls of infections.