The financial center of 26 million people has become a testing ground for China’s ‘zero-COVID’ policy.
China’s financial hub Shanghai said it would close the city in two phases to carry out COVID-19 testing for a nine-day period, after reporting a new daily record of infections. no symptoms.
Authorities said Sunday they would split Shanghai into two places for the drills, using the Huangpu River that passes through the city as a guide. Counties east of the river and some west of the river will be closed and inspected between March 28 and April 1. The remaining areas will be closed and inspected from April 1st to 5th.
The city government said on its official WeChat account, the city government said public transport, including ride-hailing services, in these areas will be suspended when they are locked down. .
It also says that all companies and factories will suspend production or work remotely during the shutdown, except for those involved in providing public services or delivering food.
“The public is asked to support, understand and cooperate with the city’s epidemic prevention and control and participate in the nucleic acid testing in an orderly manner,” the government added.
Shanghai fought a Increasing COVID-19 for nearly a month, and on Saturday it reported its highest daily number of cases since the initial outbreak in China went into remission. The city recorded 2,631 new asymptomatic cases, accounting for nearly 60% of China’s total new asymptomatic cases that day, plus 47 new symptomatic cases.
While the number of cases in Shanghai is still modest by global standards, the city of 26 million has become a testing ground for China. The “zero-COVID” strategy as it tries to control the highly infectious variant of Omicron.
The Shanghai government has previously resisted a widespread shutdown of the city to avoid destabilizing its economy and opted for a more separate “cut and mesh” approach, which includes sifting each neighborhood. resident one.
More than 14 million Shanghai residents have taken antigen tests, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said Sunday.
But some residents have complained about the seemingly endless cycles of testing and the piecemeal approach to ending the transmission chain, with some arguing that the cost of zero-COVID has become too high.
Others are also frustrated in China.
Earlier this month, in footage shared on social media, a mob of people in the northeastern city of Shenyang banged on the window of a clothing market as they shouted in frustration at a another COVID-19 test.
China reported a total of 4,448 new asymptomatic infections on March 26, up from 4,430 cases a day earlier, including 1,007 new cases in the country’s northeast Jilin province, which is currently under lockdown. book.
The country reported 1,254 new confirmed cases with symptoms, down from 1,335 a day earlier. Of the new cases, 1,217 were locally transmitted, compared with 1,280 cases a day earlier.
No deaths were reported as of March 26, the death toll was 4,638. As of March 26, mainland China has confirmed 143,240 cases of COVID-19.
