China has announced its biggest city-wide lockdown since the Covid outbreak began more than two years ago.
The city of Shanghai will be locked down in two stages over nine days while authorities carry out Covid-19 testing. The important financial hub has battled a new wave of infections for nearly a month, although case numbers are not high by some international standards. The city detected another 3,500 cases of COVID on Sunday (1), though all but 50 were people who tested positive for coronavirus but were not showing symptoms.
Authorities had so far resisted locking down the city of some 25,000.000 people to avoid destabilising the economy. But after Shanghai recorded its highest daily number of cases on Saturday since the early days of the pandemic, authorities appear to have changed course.
The lockdown will happen in two stages, with the eastern side of the city under restrictions from Monday until 1 April, and the western side from 1-5 April. Public transport will be suspended and firms and factories must halt operations or work remotely, authorities said.
The city government published the instructions on its WeChat account, asking the public “to support, understand and cooperate with the city’s epidemic prevention and control work”.
The recent surge in cases in China, although small compared to some countries, is a significant challenge to China’s “zero-Covid” strategy, which uses swift lockdowns and aggressive restrictions to contain any outbreak.
The policy sets China apart from most other countries which are trying to live with the virus.
(1) Such a low number wouldn’t seem to justify a city lockdown … 