Multiple videos on social media showed customers yelling and pushing each other to escape the building before the doors closed.
CNN has reached out to Ikea’s Shanghai press office for comment.
In a news conference on Sunday, Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission, said the “business and the affected area” would be under “closed-loop” management for two days. People inside the loop must undergo a two-day quarantine and five-day health surveillance.
On Monday, city health officials reported six locally transmitted Covid-19 cases in Shanghai, five of which were asymptomatic.
Shanghai, China’s financial capital and home to 25 million people, went into lockdown for two months earlier this year, prompting widespread public anger when residents reported difficulties ordering essentials, including groceries and medicines.
The lockdown was imposed as part of China’s strict zero-Covid policy, which relies on mass testing, extensive quarantines and even city lockdowns to prevent a resurgence of the virus.
Relying on mobile technology and big data, the Chinese government is using a color-based “health code” system to control people’s movements and contain the spread of the virus.
People in many Chinese cities are required to show a green health QR code to ride public transit and enter venues like malls, gyms and restaurants. The system logs their whereabouts and whether they have been in contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case – those whose health codes turn red will almost certainly be locked up in quarantine facilities.
Snap lockdowns have become commonplace in the country and the public is growing increasingly frustrated with the strict rules as the economy struggles to adjust to the disruption.
Last week, more than 80,000 tourists were stranded on the popular resort island of Hainan after authorities announced lockdown measures to contain an outbreak of the virus.
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