The director of the Shanghai epidemic task force, Gu Honghui, was quoted as saying by state media that the outbreak in the city “is still running at a high level”. “The situation is extremely bleak,” Gu said. China has sent more than 10,000 health workers from across the country to help the city, including 2,000 from the military, and is testing residents en masse, some of whom have been excluded for weeks. Most of eastern Shanghai, which is supposed to reopen last Friday, remained locked along with the western half of the city. Officials will reassess the precautionary measures after analyzing the test results on all city residents, Gu said. “Before that, citizens are urged to continue to follow the current quarantine measures and stay in their homes except for medical and other emergencies,” Gu said.

Epidemic caused by the Omicron variant BA.2

Shanghai has reported more than 73,000 positive COVID-19 infections since the resurgence of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant in March. Shanghai recorded another 13,354 cases on Monday – the vast majority asymptomatic – bringing the city’s total to more than 73,000 since the latest wave of infections began last month. No deaths have been attributed to the outbreak caused by the Omicron BA.2 variant, which is much more contagious but also less deadly than the previous Delta strain. Workers take off their protective gear next to the entrance of a neighborhood in Shanghai’s Jingan district on Tuesday. (Hector Retamal / AFP / Getty Images)
A separate outbreak continues to rage in the northeastern province of Jilin, and the capital, Beijing, has also reported nine other cases, only one of which is asymptomatic. Workers closed an entire mall in the city where a case had been identified. While China’s vaccination rate is around 90%, domestically produced inactivated virus vaccines are considered weaker than mRNA vaccines such as those produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna used abroad, as well as in Chinese territories. and Macau. Vaccination rates among the elderly are also much lower than in the general population, with only about half of those over 80 being fully vaccinated.

Thousands under surveillance

Meanwhile, there have been complaints in Shanghai about difficulties in obtaining food and daily necessities, as well as shortages of medical staff, volunteers and beds in isolation cells where tens of thousands are being held for monitoring. Shanghai has turned a showroom and other facilities into huge isolation centers where people with mild or no symptoms are housed in a sea of ​​beds separated by temporary partitions. Gu said about 47,700 beds are available for patients with COVID-19, and another 30,000 beds will be ready soon. It was unclear how many beds were available for more than 100,000 monitored patients, according to city health officials. Public outrage has been fueled by reports and video clips posted on the Internet documenting the death of a nurse who was not admitted to her own hospital under COVID-19 restrictions and babies who were separated from their parents. The release of a video showing many babies being held in cots prompted the city’s Public Health Clinical Center to issue a statement saying the children were being cared for well and had been transferred to a new facility when the video was taken. A negative antigen test kit showing a negative result appears on Tuesday during the lockdown in Shanghai. (Hector Retamal / AFP / Getty Images)
At a virtual town hall on Monday, the U.S. consulate in Shanghai warned of possible family separation amid a lockdown, but said it had “extremely limited capacity” to intervene in such cases.

Economic impact

Concern is growing about the potential financial impact on China’s financial capital, another important shipping and manufacturing hub. Most public transport has been suspended and non-core businesses closed, although airports and train stations remain open and the city’s port and some large industries, such as car factories, continue to operate. International events in the city have been canceled and three out of five foreign companies operating in Shanghai say they have reduced their forecasts for this year’s sales, according to a survey conducted last week by the American Chamber of Commerce. One-third of the 120 companies that responded to the survey said they had delayed investment. Despite these concerns and growing public frustration, China says it is sticking to the hard-core “zero tolerance” approach that requires lockdowns, mass testing and the mandatory isolation of all suspected cases and close contacts.