Shanghai Continues to Lock Down Areas Even as Cases Stabilize
2022.07.15 08:19
Shanghai Continues to Lock Down Areas Even as Cases Stabilize
(Bloomberg) — Shanghai’s latest Covid-19 outbreak appears to be stabilizing, with most new cases already in government-mandated quarantine, but authorities are taking no chances, still locking down areas of the city and housing compounds as infections arise.
The financial center recorded 45 infections for Thursday, down from 47 on Wednesday. While daily cases have jumped from single digits last week, they are no longer rising precipitously, and all the latest cases were already in isolation.
Still, a further 30 high and mid-level risk areas were subject to lockdown from Friday, officials said. Areas can be defined as single housing compounds to a group of apartment blocks.
Fear of another citywide lockdown was fueled by the rising caseload, which went from a zero infections in late June to 69 at the weekend. Two neighborhood committees issued an open letter on Monday calling on residents to stockpile enough food and medical supplies to last 14 days, according to reports carried in media outlets including eastday.com, adding to the anxiety in Shanghai, which emerged from a bruising two-month lockdown in May.
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Speculation a wide-ranging lockdown is coming coursed through China’s social media platforms earlier in the week, spurring the government to say the claims were false and “pure rumors” on its official WeChat account. Some online claimed that a phased lockdown, akin to the first stage of Shanghai’s move in March, could be imposed once high school entrance exams slated for this week had been completed.
Authorities seem to be focused on more targeted moves, with lockdowns of 60 “areas” lifted effective Friday, only to see others placed under fresh curbs.
Shanghai’s spike in infections after weeks of few cases comes after the detection of the more contagious BA.5 sub-strain of the omicron variant. Outbreaks are also flaring elsewhere in China, from Gansu province in the north — where the capital Lanzhou is locked down — to Guangxi in the south, which reported 165 cases for Thursday.
China is continuing to try and eliminate Covid, even as the rest of the world dismantles pandemic barriers and opens up their economies.
Why China Is Sticking With Its Covid Zero Strategy: QuickTake
President Xi Jinping has made the Covid Zero strategy a hallmark of his rule, saying the country won’t pursue “herd immunity” like other countries because it would exact too much of a toll, particularly on China’s elderly, which have low vaccination rates. He has repudiated the high death rates from Covid elsewhere, especially in arch rival the US, which has the highest number of recorded fatalities from the virus globally.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
