Shanghai locks down parts of city again as coronavirus fears return
SHANGHAI will lock down a district in the south-west on Saturday (Jun 11) morning to conduct a mass Covid-19 testing drive, its first major movement restriction since the financial hub exited a bruising 2-month shutdown at the start of June.
The mini-lockdown is raising concerns that the city’s reopening is backsliding as officials fear a rebound in cases. While the plan is to seal the Minhang district of 2.65 million people only for the morning, residents face the risk of being confined to their homes for another 2 weeks if any Covid infections are discovered, in line with China’s Covid Zero policy.
Elsewhere in the city of 25 million, officials appear to be escalating curbs and placing apartment blocks back under lockdown over the slightest hint of infection risk. Some housing compounds in the central Jing’an and Xuhui districts were sealed for 14 days from Tuesday, although only close contacts — no confirmed cases — were found among residents.
The threat of renewed restrictions is looming over all of Shanghai as the city slowly emerges from the lockdown implemented in late March. While most residents have regained their freedom since the start of the June, hundreds of thousands are grappling with varying limitations and the abrupt imposition of new curbs.
The constant risk of resurgence and the measures needed to prevent them underscores the stress stemming from the zero-tolerance strategy still followed in the world’s most populous country.
In Beijing, mass testing resumed on Thursday in several neighbourhoods in its eastern Chaoyang district, known for its skyscrapers and glistening retail outlets, after a bar cluster ended a 5-day streak of zero community spread. Bars, Internet cafes and other entertainment venues in the area were closed, with more inspections planned city-wide, municipal officials said. Those that fail to comply with Covid protocols will be shut.
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“The risk of Covid’s covert spread remains, and it sounds an alarm once again that our epidemic control and prevention must not have an iota of relaxation,” said Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing municipal government at a briefing on Thursday.
Nationwide, China reported 164 infections for Wednesday, including 9 in Shanghai. Most of the country’s cases were in Inner Mongolia, in China’s north, where the number rose to 130 from 81 the previous day, and some areas remain locked down. In the capital of Beijing, just 1 new infection was recorded.
Besides the lockdowns, mass testing is being rolled out at numerous housing compounds around Shanghai, which can uncover infections that will lead to wholesale curbs again.
In the city’s Xuhui and Jing’an districts, people in some affected areas are barred from leaving their homes and are subject to a daily Covid test, according to the latest policy. Others will be quarantined for 7 days, followed by another week of health monitoring at home. During the control period, all vehicles in regions except for buses and ambulance are banned, according to government statements.
There were signs that health leaders are trying to rein in some over-zealous efforts to root out the virus.
Not every city in China needs to do regular Covid mass testing, and results should not always be required for riding public transportation and entering public venues, officials at China’s National Health Commission said on Thursday. Testing should focus on people with high risk exposure and those in places with outbreaks, said He Qinghua, an official from the National Health Commission.
Beijing became the latest mega city to dial down its testing, requiring them every 3 days rather than every other day to reduce the burden, said Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission at the briefing. BLOOMBERG
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