Shanghai, China’s largest city and the country’s economic capital, has again reported cases of coronavirus in areas outside the quarantine areas – there were 58 new infections on Monday (2). At the same time, Beijing has stepped up its testing campaign during a deflated Labor Day holiday.
The confinements in Shanghai, a city of 25 million people, have generated rare public demonstrations of dissatisfaction, with millions of people under lockdown for more than a month, many of them in condominiums fenced by the government and facing difficulties in obtaining everyday essentials. .
While city officials say the situation is improving, images on social media have angered the public at a time when the city’s hospitals and morgues are packed.
On Monday, the government said it was investigating five agents after videos showed a nursing home taking an elderly man in a body bag to a morgue — later, the person was found alive.
Shanghai residents got a glimmer of hope over the weekend, with news that no infections were reported outside the quarantine areas in two days, but frustration soon set in, with cases being tallied among people allowed to move with more freedom in the city.
Government officials did not comment on the new contaminations at a news conference, but criticisms emerged online. “They announced the elimination of cases at the community level too early,” wrote one person on the social network Weibo. On the other hand, many people viewed trends in the data with optimism, with 32 new deaths recorded on Sunday, down from 38 the day before, as well as 6,804 new local infections — a decrease from 7,189 on Saturday.
Even with the fall, more barriers were built in some residential blocks in Shanghai on Monday, although officials say employees at companies the government has placed on a priority list can ask for a release if they live in uncontaminated buildings for seven days.
The coronavirus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, and for two years the regime managed to keep outbreaks under control, with lockdowns and travel bans.
But the rapid spread of the omicron variant has tested the country’s “zero Covid” policy this year, crucial for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to secure a rare third term in the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn.
Chinese policy to fight the virus is at odds with the rest of the world, where many leaders have relaxed restrictions or ended them all at the same time, in an attempt to live with Covid, even as contamination continues to occur. New Zealand, which had one of the toughest confinements of the health crisis in the world, finally reopened its borders on Monday, encouraging visitors to go for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
China has given no hints that it will change its policies to fight the virus even in the face of internal difficulties and waves of disruption in global supply chains. Beijing, with dozens of infections daily and an outbreak in its second week, has not entered a lockdown and, so far, is betting on a mass testing program to locate and isolate cases of contamination.
With 22 million inhabitants, the capital tightened the confinement points during the five-day May 1st holiday, traditionally one of the most celebrated dates in the country, with many trips.
Twelve districts of Beijing, including the largest, Chaoyang, a region that is home to nightclubs, bars and embassies, will have to carry out three rounds of Covid detection tests between Tuesday (3) and Thursday (5), according to an official. Chaoyang is home to the highest infection rate in the Chinese capital.
Restaurants are closed off to customers, and apartment blocks have been closed. The streets are quiet, and residents who venture outside must present a negative Covid test to enter most public places.
Authorities monitor close contacts of confirmed cases, warning them to stay home. China reported 7,822 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, down from 8,329 infections the day before, according to data from the National Health Commission released on Monday.
All 32 deaths recorded on Sunday in the country occurred in Shanghai, bringing the official Chinese death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,092. India, the only country with a population comparable to China’s 1.4 billion people, has officially reported more than 500,000 Covid deaths, although some health experts say they believe the total number is much higher.
