Coronavirus: Shanghai’s new Covid-19 cases fall to 15-day low, as focus shifts to curbing spillovers
- Shanghai added 18,495 new cases in the previous 24 hours, 2.1 per cent fewer than a day earlier, according to data released on Thursday
- Symptomatic cases rose 5.6 per cent to 2,634, while eight patients died
The new focus, known as “societal zero-Covid”, came at the end of a five-day standstill order that curbed the movement of medical staff, health officials, delivery couriers and community volunteers across the city’s quarantine areas, hospitals and makeshift isolation wards. The standstill order is still in place.
“The focus of the [antivirus measures] needs to be highlighted, as we chase the societal zero-Covid goal,” Chinese Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, said during a meeting with city officials on Wednesday. “We need to accelerate the process of transferring infected people to quarantine sites.”
The number of symptomatic patients, rising two times in four days, kept health authorities on their toes, prompting Sun to warn that the city would have to double down on its efforts to achieve societal zero-Covid at the highest risk locked down areas, particularly quarantine centres.