The city government extended the lockdown in the eastern districts late Thursday, as the western parts of the city closed as planned. New official guidelines suggest that many in China’s most populous city should now stay home long enough to control the epidemic – with instructions not to cross the thresholds even to throw garbage or walk their dogs. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Public transport in most of the city has been suspended, and businesses that are considered unnecessary, such as restaurants and shopping malls, also had to close. The lockdown, designed to stop an outbreak of the high-transmissibility Omicron variant that started about a month ago, started on Monday and was originally going to last a total of 10 days. Areas east of Shanghai’s Huangpu River were to be closed for five days before reopening as western neighborhoods began a five-day closure. But the city government has said it will gradually lift the curbs in eastern Shanghai. read more This means that most areas are now in lockdown covering the Lujiazui district office towers, China’s response to Wall Street, and factories such as the Volkswagen joint venture (VOWG_p.DE) with SAIC Motor (600104.SS) and the American automaker Tesla’s (TSLA.O) plant. read more China’s outbreak is small by world standards. However, Shanghai, which now accounts for three in four local asymptomatic cases across the country, has emerged as a testing ground for COVID handling by the national government – a “dynamic clean-up” approach that aims to control, detect and put in central quarantine all positives. case. read more Authorities said Friday that the city’s daily toll fell for the second day in a row: it reported 4,144 locally transmitted new asymptomatic cases and 358 incidental cases on Thursday, up from 5,298 and 355 the previous day. Some residents, however, have expressed skepticism about the daily account, questioning how quickly positive cases are recorded in the system. Shanghai publishes a daily list of addresses where cases have been identified and some have said that housing associations were only included days after neighbors tested positive – or not included at all. Shanghai city authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment on skepticism about the case numbers. While in lockdown, residents will have to undergo nucleic acid testing rounds to be performed by hazmat uniformed healthcare workers. They are authorized to leave their apartments only for the tests that will take place in or near their accommodation facilities. Authorities asked residents to queue for tests two meters away amid public concerns about transmission risks. Meanwhile, the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center, which usually hosts trade shows such as the Shanghai Auto Show, has become the city’s largest quarantine center with more than 15,000 beds, Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Brenda Goh. Edited by: Kenneth Maxwell Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
