China is battling the biggest Covid outbreak in the country since the original Wuhan outbreak. Shanghai said it will lock down half of the city in different turns in order to begin testing the population for Covid.
The eastern half of Shanghai has about 11 million residents, all of whom will go into a lockdown beginning today, and be locked down for four days. The other 14 million will begin their lockdown on Friday.
Every person in Shanghai is required to participate in the screenings and lockdown for Covid, and maintain a “green” health code status, which will be necessary to gain access to grocery stores and to public areas.
During the lockdowns of each side of the town, people will be in full lockdowns, therefore banned from going out and from going to work unless their work is deemed essential. Public transport will also be completely suspended in the lockdown areas, including buses, subways, taxis, and ferries.
Shanghai has had a huge surge of Covid cases this weekend alone, with the city registering 2,678 new cases on Saturday by itself. This accounted for about half of all new Covid cases that were recorded across China on Saturday.
China has struggled to bring its latest outbreak under control, which has prompted citizens to feel frustrated about China’s zero-Covid strategy. Frustrated Chinese citizens have taken to the internet to vent about the system.
China has been reluctant to impose full and sweeping city lockdowns even though case numbers have been rising.
In order to address the cases in the city of Shanghai, city officials have distributed rapid antigen test kits to households that exist in low-risk areas. About 14 million people were tested as of Sunday
Despite residential compounds being sealed off after signs of Covid cases being detected, Shanghai was reluctant to implement a lockdown across the city before the announcement was made on Sunday.
Be the first to comment