Hard-Hit Shanghai Extends Covid Lockdown As Cases Surge
Topline
Shanghai reported greater than 13,000 new Covid-19 instances on Tuesday as town’s outbreak surges regardless of an ongoing lockdown, prompting authorities within the Chinese language monetary hub to indefinitely prolong curbs that had been scheduled to finish on Tuesday.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Key Information
According to China’s Nationwide Well being Fee, Shanghai reported 13,086 new asymptomatic Covid-19 instances on Tuesday, up from 8,581 a day earlier.
The town of 26 million residents additionally reported 268 new symptomatic instances, down from 425 on Monday.
Shanghai’s ongoing two-phase lockdown which started final week was scheduled to finish Tuesday, however metropolis authorities late Monday mentioned the restrictions will stay in place whereas the state of affairs is being evaluated and mass testing outcomes are analyzed.
Native authorities have additionally positioned extra restrictions that embody suspension of a number of subway strains.
Greater than 10,000 well being staff from throughout the nation—together with 2,000 from the Chinese language navy—have been despatched to Shanghai to assist take care of the outbreak, the Related Press reports.
Large Quantity
792. That’s the overall variety of symptomatic Covid-19 instances detected in China’s northeastern Jilin province, with most instances being reported in its capital Changchun. Whereas Shanghai’s asymptomatic caseload far outstrips that of Jilin, the area continues to report near 70% of China’s new symptomatic instances and it offers with its personal stringent lockdown.
Key Background
Final week, Shanghai started a two-stage lockdown to regulate its ongoing surge fueled by the extremely contagious omicron sub-variant generally known as BA.2. The primary part started on Monday and was restricted to town’s Pudong monetary district and close by neighborhoods east of the Huangpu River. That part was supposed to finish on Friday following a number of rounds of mass testing and be adopted by a lockdown on town’s huge downtown space, to the west of the Huangpu River. Nonetheless, the jap a part of town, which was purported to re-open final Friday, additionally continues to stay locked down. Whereas China has beforehand used snap lockdowns and mass testing to stomp down on outbreaks as a part of its “dynamic zero Covid” technique, the present one in Shanghai faces two key challenges, the sheer measurement of town which homes 26 million residents and the extremely infectious nature of the BA.2 variant.
Additional Studying
Shanghai lockdown deepens after new surge in asymptomatic COVID cases (Reuters)
10,000 health workers sent to help control Shanghai outbreak (Related Press)
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