SHANGHAI, April 5 (Reuters) – China’s major financial center in Shanghai lifted transport restrictions on Tuesday after a day of intensive city-wide tests showed new COVID-19 cases rising to more than 13,000, with no end in sight. blocking.
After initially taking a more partial approach to minimizing economic disruption, Shanghai imposed broader restrictions last week as authorities struggled to control what has become the city’s biggest COVID-19 epidemic.
The lockout now covers more than 25 million people after restrictions in the city’s western quarters were extended to a further order in what has become a testing ground for the government’s zero-tolerance approach to the government’s dynamic “clean-up” approach and its ability to retain a highly contagious option. Omicron.
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“Currently, the prevention and control of the Shanghai epidemic is at its most difficult and critical stage,” Wu Qianyu, a municipal health commission official, told a briefing on Tuesday. “We must adhere to the common policy of dynamic liberation without hesitation, without hesitation.
Shanghai reported a record 13,086 new asymptomatic cases of coronavirus on April 4, the city government said on its official WeChat channel, compared to 8,581 the previous day, following a city-wide surveillance testing program that took more than 25 million people. for 24 hours.
The local government said it collected 25.67 million samples in 2.4 million tubes on Monday, and nearly 80% of the total were tested by 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. All positive results are monitored on an individual level.
Symptoms dropped to 268 on Monday, from 425 a day earlier. The proportion of official symptomatic infections remains far lower than the rest of the world, which experts attribute to the city’s proactive screening process.
At least 38,000 employees have been stationed in Shanghai from other regions in what state media describe as the largest national medical operation since the closure of Wuhan in early 2020 since the first known outbreak of coronavirus.
Authorities said late Monday that additional restrictions would be placed on public transport networks from Tuesday, with more subway lines suspended.
DRAGON MEASURES
Thousands of Shanghai residents have been detained in rudimentary “central quarantine” facilities after positive tests, whether symptomatic or not.
Jane Polubotko, a Ukrainian marketing manager who is now in the city’s largest quarantine center, told Reuters that it was not yet clear when and how they would be released.
“No one knows how many tests we need to pass,” she said.
As the public continued to express concern about Shanghai’s draconian measures, sharing social media videos, Sun Chunlan, China’s deputy prime minister in charge of COVID prevention, called on local party organizations to “do everything possible” to help residents solve problems. their access to medicines, food and water.
Analysts outside China warn of the economic costs of the country’s relentless campaign to curb infections.
“What is most striking about Shanghai is the difficulty the authorities face in managing logistics, especially the conditions in centralized quarantine facilities,” said Michael Hirson, a Chinese analyst at Eurasia Group.
“Given that Shanghai has a very capable government, the current problems are a warning to local governments across China, where capacity is not so high and large outbreaks can stretch resources beyond borders,” he added.
Across the country, China reported 1,235 confirmed coronavirus cases on April 4, less than 1,405 a day earlier, including 1,173 local broadcasts. The number of new asymptomatic cases was 15,355, compared with 11,862 a day earlier.
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Report by David Stanway and Brenda Go; Edited by Stephen Coates and Richard Pullin
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