Beijing steps up Covid measures as cases quadruple during key CCP congress meeting

China's capital, Beijing, has dialled up measures to stop Covid, strengthening public checks and locking down some residential compounds after a quadrupling of its cases in recent weeks, just as a key Communist party congress entered full swing. The city of 21 million people on Thursday reported 18 new locally transmitted cases for the previous day, bringing the tally for the past 10 days to 197. That is four times more than the 49 infections detected in the previous 10-day period. While the number of cases is very small compared with other countries, China's zero-Covid policy has compelled authorities in…