Coronavirus: Shanghai’s Covid-19 cases resume setting daily records after a one-day pause, extending horizon of citywide lockdown

Shanghai’s symptomatic cases surged again after ebbing for two days, rising to 1,189 cases, according to a report on Wednesday, from 914 a day earlier

The latest caseload of 26,330 infections set a daily record for the 11th time in 12 days

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A community volunteer wearing personal protective equipment checks out vegetables to be distributed by local government to residents in a compound during a Covid-19 lockdown in Pudong district in Shanghai on April 12, 2022. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:46am, 13 Apr 2022Updated: 10:35am, 14 Apr 2022

Shanghai reported 26,330 confirmed Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, setting a daily record for the 11th time in 12 days, underscoring how the disease has defied more than a week of lockdowns and quarantines to be deeply entrenched in the population of 25 million people.

Symptomatic cases surged again after ebbing for two days, rising to 1,189 cases from 914 a day earlier, according to data released by the local health commission. The vast majority of infections remained asymptomatic, and no fatality has yet been linked directly to Covid-19 since March 1.

The data released on Wednesday, which topped the previous record set on Monday at 26,087, have exacerbated concerns about extending the horizons of Shanghai’s lockdown, in place across all 16 districts in one of China’s largest population centres. Local authorities confined virtually every resident – except emergency and health workers – in China’s commercial hub either to their homes or workplaces since April 5.

“New cases have not peaked yet, and it will still be some time before a dynamic zero-Covid goal can be achieved,” said Meng Tianying, a senior executive at Shanghai-based consultancy Domo Medical. “The central government and local authorities will have to re-examine the strategy used to contain the outbreak, after more than a week of citywide lockdown and mass testing exercises.”

Part of Shanghai’s elevated highway, which is usually choked with bumper-to-bumper traffic on most weekdays. The highway was almost devoid of traffic on April 12, 2022, amid a citywide lockdown in place since April 5. Photo: Bloomberg.

Wednesday’s reported caseload raised Shanghai’s tally since March 1 to 253,000, among which 9,500 showed symptoms. The city has conducted seven rounds of mass testing since April 3.