Shanghai seals off China’s tallest skyscraper to screen for Covid-19 infections, but says no to citywide lockdown

The 632 metre skyscraper in the Lujiazui finance and trade zone, which is viewed as “China’s Wall Street”, was sealed off on Monday as Shanghai, a city of 25 million residents, has reported about 1,000 Covid-19 infections since the beginning of March.

Local officials, however, said a citywide lockdown would not be implemented, as they believed the prevention methods currently in use would work effectively.

“Guided by the principles of … scientific and comprehensive prevention, we keep adjusting our strategy in accordance with the situation on the ground. We have not locked down the city and there is no need for such measures,” Gu Honghui, a deputy secretary general of the Shanghai municipal government, said on Tuesday.

Gu’s remarks seemed to be addressing speculation about the drastic measures to be taken by the city in its fight to contain an Omicron variant-fuelled Covid-19 outbreak. Between the first coronavirus outbreak in December 2019 and February this year, mainland China’s most developed metropolis had reported only 400 infections and seven deaths. There were fears the current outbreak would lead to a lockdown, severely disrupting the local economy.

In the current outbreak, about 120 cases had mild symptoms while others were asymptomatic, local health authorities said.