People waiting for a PCR test in Beijing, China. According to a National Health Commission report on October 28th there were 262 new locally-transmitted Covid cases detected in 31 Chinese provinces. Photograph: EPA It was an hour before we were due to meet in a bar called Great Leap when the phone throbbed on the kitchen table with a message from my friend. “Change of plans. The entire compound next to that bar is in lockdown. Better keep our distance,” it said. It has been the same story every other day for the past couple of weeks as a scattering...