Coronavirus: Shanghai orders tests and standstill curbs in Jinshan after finding cases, doubling down on lockdowns as Xi defends China’s zero-Covid pursuit
- Shanghai’s daily new cases fell for the 13th consecutive day, dropping 8.2 per cent to 4,269 over the past 24 hours, according to data released on Friday
- Symptomatic cases declined by 6.1 per cent to 245, while 12 patients died
Shanghai reintroduced mass tests and standstill orders in Jinshan district after finding two new Covid-19 infections in an area that was cleared of the disease for more than two weeks, doubling down on curbs as President Xi Jinping defended China’s zero-Covid pursuit.
All 800,000 residents in Jinshan district in southwestern Shanghai will have to undergo nucleic acid tests on Friday, while the movements of medical staff, food deliverers and community volunteers will be limited to stem the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Residents who were allowed to venture out to the streets as recently as Monday had to be homebound, according to notices in the district.
The partial lockdown in Jinshan followed the discovery of two cases in quarantined areas, in setbacks for a district that claimed to have reached its so-called societal zero-Covid goal- where no cases were reported for 14 days – four days earlier.
“The risks of a resurgence of the outbreak are still there, and we have to keep up our fight against the virus to prevent it from spreading among high-risk populations in certain areas,” Shanghai’s executive vice-mayor Wu Qing said during a Friday press briefing.
