The open-all-hours Heaven Supermarket Bar is famous in Beijing for two things: cheap liquor and huge crowds. But it’s now also gained city-wide notoriety as the reason that thousands of people are being placed in lockdown after an outbreak of nearly 200 COVID cases were linked to the bar. Millions of people will also now face mandatory testing as a result of the flareup as Chinese authorities continue to pursue a strict “zero COVID” policy. The outbreak in China’s capital comes after dine-in service at restaurants in the city resumed on June 6 following more than a month of hardline COVID curbs in the city. Chaoyang—the Beijing district where cases related to the bar were discovered—began a three-day testing program Monday for its roughly 3.5 million residents, while the residential buildings of some 10,000 people who came into close contact with the bar’s patrons have been put in lockdown.
