BEIJING—Thousands of runners took to the streets of China’s capital on Sunday for the return of the Beijing marathon after a two-year COVID-19 hiatus, even as another death blamed on China’s strict pandemic controls generated more public anger.
Authorities are sticking to a “zero-COVID” strategy that locks down neighborhoods when any virus cases are found and quarantines everyone arriving from overseas in hotels for seven to 10 days.
A simmering public frustration, which has grown as the rest of the world opens up, has been fueled by a series of tragic incidents—in several cases because people were denied timely care for non-COVID-19 medical emergencies….