Coronavirus: Shanghai backs away from easing lockdowns in ‘low-risk’ areas, even as Covid-19 cases end 10-day record streak

Shanghai added 22,342 new cases on Tuesday, including 994 symptomatic cases, bringing the city’s total infections to about 227,000 since March 1
China reported 24,546 confirmed Covid-19 cases nationwide on Tuesday, according to the national health commission

Shanghai

Daniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 11:06am, 12 Apr 2022

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Shanghai authorities have backed away from their plan to relax the lockdown measures in some of the lower-risk areas across the nation’s biggest commercial hub, as daily Covid-19 infections stayed above 20,000 even as they broke a 10-day record-setting streak.

Residents in 7,565 low-risk areas, or “precautionary zones” with no infections in the past 14 days, can move around within their compounds but are still barred from venturing out onto the streets if their surroundings belong to higher-risk areas, according to notices distributed in the Yangpu district.

That essentially combined the lowest-risk areas into the medium-risk “control areas” under the Shanghai authorities’ new classification system, first announced on the weekend. Apartment blocks and compounds in the highest-risk “lockdown zones” remain sealed off, and residents are not even allowed to leave their homes.

“The numbers of new cases are still high, and risks will [magnify] if crowds gather, even at those low-risk zones,” said Meng Tianying, a senior executive at Shanghai-based consultancy Domo Medical. “City officials are obviously worried about a resurgence [of Covid-19 cases] and decided to strengthen their control.”

A patient who has recovered from COVID-19 is disinfected as he leaves a makeshift hospital converted from Shanghai Convention & Exhibition Center of International Sourcing in Shanghai on Saturday, April 9, 2022. Photo: Xinhua via AP

A residential compound classified as a “precautionary zone” in the Xuhui district in Puxi, west of the Huangpu River, issues one ticket daily for each household, allowing only one person to venture out to the streets every day.

“The only scene visible was the deserted streets,” said Zuo Xiangkui, a resident who was allowed to leave his compound. “It is sad to see such a dire scenario like this after being restricted to home for 12 days. Xujiahui is like a ghost town.”

Shanghai added 22,342 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the total infections in China’s financial hub to about 227,000 since March 1, out of a citywide population of 25 million.

Medical workers conduct COVID-19 tests for residents after a confirmed case was found in the community on Sunday, April 10, 2022, in Shanghai. Photo: AP

The vast majority of the positive cases were asymptomatic, with only 994 of Tuesday’s infections showing symptoms, compared with 914 symptomatic cases on Monday and about 1,000 every day over the weekend.

No fatality had been recorded in Shanghai from Covid-19 since March, and health authorities have released at least 11,000 people from quarantine facilities after their tests returned negative.

China reported 24,546 confirmed Covid-19 cases nationwide on Tuesday, according to the national health commission.

A temporary hospital being constructed at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai on April 8, 2022. Photo: Xinhua via AP

The local authorities in Shanghai are taking no chances with the highly transmissible Omicron variant by ordering mass testing – at least the seventh round in 10 days – in the highest “lockdown zones.”

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan has been stationed in Shanghai for more than a week to oversee the anti-pandemic fight in the city, described as being “unprepared” by China’s top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan.

Shanghai’s citywide lockdown, officially starting on April 5, has disrupted vital supply chains and upended the lives of the city’s residents with limited access to medical and food supply. Tens of thousands of businesses from local stores to multinational companies have halted their production.

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Nio, a Shanghai-based assembler of electric cars, was the latest manufacturer to suspend its output. While its factory is in the eastern Anhui provincial capital of Hefei, lockdowns in Shanghai and bordering provinces of Jilin and Jiangsu had gummed up its supply chain and disabled the transport of vital components.

Nowhere is the suspension more critical than in Pudong, the area east of the Huangpu River with 5.7 million residents and home to the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the treasury operations of almost every bank in China. It has been transformed from paddy fields into China’s financial and manufacturing heart in four decades of economic boom.

The Pudong local government on Tuesday classified 3,941, or 46 per cent of the 8,601 zones as “precautionary zones.” Unlike other districts, the municipality did not identify which units fell into the “low-risk” category in its public statement.

It is believed that each residential compound would be notified by authorities at subdistrict levels authorities.

“It does not make a big difference between ‘precautionary zone’ and ‘control zone’ if we are still not allowed to go shopping,” said Zhang Yixiang, a resident at Tangqiao subdistrict whose compound has not reported a single case since April 1. “But this is still a first step (taken by the government) to ease livelihood burdens on residents.”

just in case’ as Covid-19 cuts supply chains

Key offices and factories in Pudong, including the stock exchange, have been operating in so-called closed loop conditions since March 28, where workers are required to sleep on site, with zero contact with outsiders.

The factories of Tesla, GM and other car makers are all here, as are the chip foundries of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) and Hua Hong Semiconductor. Walt Disney’s largest Asian theme park is also located here, as is the world’s largest container port, connected via the planet’s longest bridge to the Yangshan island.

Besides Shanghai, a small flare-up of 35 cases was reported in southern Guangdong province, which ordered all 18 million residents in the provincial capital of Guangzhou to undergo mass testing. In Jilin province, China’s second-largest automobile manufacturing base, 769 new cases were detected.

Nanjing Road East, one of Shanghai’s most famous shopping streets, typically choked full of shoppers, tourists and pedestrians, on March 31, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

On Monday, the US Department of State ordered the departure of non-emergency employees and their family members from its consulate in Shanghai amid concerns about their safety and welfare.

It came two days after the US “authorised” the employees at the consulate to leave voluntarily on Saturday. The department had last week warned Americans thinking of travelling to China that they may be subject to “arbitrary” local law enforcement and coronavirus-related restrictions.

“The movement from ‘authorised” to ‘ordered’ departure means that we are now mandating that certain employees depart Shanghai rather than making this decision voluntary,” the US embassy in Beijing said in a statement.