On April 9, a residential neighborhood with an area of about 2 square miles in Beijing’s densely populated Chaoyang district was declared a high-risk area, because in the past 14 days, there were eight confirmed local cases of COVID-19 infection, according to the deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention. China’s zero-COVID policy does not allow people in the high-risk area to leave their homes, while people in the surrounding areas are allowed to leave their homes but not the community, and they are not allowed to congregate. The high-risk area, named Jiuxianqiao, consists of 10 residential communities, 4 lower schools (up to grade 6) and 3 upper schools (grade 7–12), 7 medical facilities ranging from general hospitals to clinics, and a variety of businesses. On the Chinese social media app weibo, a netizen posted a picture of an electronic bulletin board in a Beijing …