Shanghai saw a record 39 fatalities from Covid-19 as Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan called for the timely treatment of patients, while a rash of new cases in Beijing prompted local authorities to step up measures to cut chains of transmission. A total of 21,058 new cases in Shanghai were recorded in the last 24 hours, 10 per cent less than a day earlier, according to data released on Sunday. Symptomatic cases plunged by 49 per cent to 1,401. Cumulative infections since the outbreak began on March 1 topped 487,000. Beijing, meanwhile, added 13 new cases as of 4pm on Sunday, which raised the total number of infections in the nation’s capital to 41 in the latest outbreak. Local health officials said the virus had been spreading undetected in the city for about a week. HSBC, Standard Chartered seen reporting earnings setback on Covid, Ukraine war fallout. Can they surprise the market? “Each patient must be transferred [to hospitals or quarantine sites],” Sun, who has been in Shanghai to oversee its anti-pandemic work since April 2, told a meeting of officials on Saturday, according to a Shanghai government statement. “Daily new cases must be handled on the same day and every patient should be given a timely treatment.” All of the 39 deaths in Shanghai, more than triple the number a day earlier, had underlying health issues including coronary syndrome, terminal cancer, cerebral infarction and Alzheimer’s disease. Their average age was 78.7 years, and the oldest was 98. The health authorities said all 87 deaths that have occurred during the current outbreak were caused by the underlying diseases, rather than Covid-19 itself. Nearly all of the deceased had been disqualified from being vaccinated because of their ailments. It’s all gone bad for China’s future champions as lockdowns sink ChiNext deeper into bear market Severe cases hit 160, up slightly from 157 reported on Saturday, with 19 of the patients in critical condition, compared to 17 the previous day, according to Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai health commission. “Risks remain high for elderly people as the infections can cause severe symptoms among them,” Zhao told a press briefing on Sunday. “Senior citizens who are qualified for vaccination are urged to receive the jabs soon.” Wang Xingpeng, director of the Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development Centre that operates all of the city’s main hospitals, said nine teams comprising 360 medical experts had been dispatched to treat severe cases. Hospitals and quarantine sites released 18,868 Covid-19 carriers on Saturday, bringing the total number to about 227,500. This accounts for 47 per cent of the city’s total infections during this wave of the pandemic. In Beijing, three rounds of mass nucleic acid testing will be conducted from Monday to Friday in the city’s southern Chaoyang district. This will cover everybody living and working in the area, as infections were found to have spread to a middle school. “Actions must swiftly be taken to locate high-risk areas, trace hidden infections and cut transmission chains,” Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of Beijing’s disease prevention and control centre, told a press conference on Sunday. Pang expected the latest Covid-19 screening effort to reveal more cases. The new infections in Beijing have also stoked fears about a lockdown in the capital, as thousands of residents flocked to supermarkets and groceries to stock up on food and daily essentials. Cai Qi, the Communist Party Secretary of Beijing, said in a government conference on Saturday that the city has reached a critical moment to contain the latest outbreak caused by the fast-spreading Omicron. Total infections across mainland China plummeted by a fifth to 19,409, according to data released on Sunday, most of them in Shanghai. Guangdong province in southern China added 13 cases, four of which showed symptoms. Northeast Jilin province recorded 803 new infections. Shanghai, the epicentre of China’s latest Covid-19 outbreak, imposed a citywide lockdown on April 1 and had set a deadline for achieving its zero-Covid goal by April 20. The municipality had hoped to bring new infections in unguarded zones – low-risk residential compounds and their surrounding areas – to zero before shifting its focus towards preventing the disease from spilling beyond the highest risk areas and hospitals into the community. But its hopes were dashed by the highly transmissible Omicron variant . A total of 280 cases were detected in the unguarded zones on Saturday, up from 218 a day earlier. As the extended lockdown continues indefinitely, Shanghai – a major gateway city for foreign businesses and capital – last week allowed 666 key manufactures, including car assemblers, chip makers and biomedicine firms to resume production. Life has come to a standstill in Shanghai but tech helping amid lockdowns They are required to operate in a “closed loop” system, in which workers essentially live on-site to avoid contact with outsiders. A video clip showing several disgruntled residents smashing barricades in their neighbourhoods went viral on Saturday, the latest sign that public patience is wearing thin after three weeks of lockdown. On Saturday, the authorities in Pudong, east of Shanghai’s Huangpu River, built up thousands of barricades inside residential complexes to prevent people in the highest-risk “lockdown areas” – where at least one infection has been spotted in the previous seven days – from entering low-risk zones, according to a government document seen by the Post . “The move is ridiculous and inhumane,” said Arthur Chen, a high-school student who witnessed barricades being vandalised. “The strategy of using barricades to limit people’s movement is in discordance with the government’s principle of putting people first.”