Coronavirus: Shanghai’s daily Covid-19 infections halve to below 1,500 cases, raising hopes that the end may be in sight for city’s lockdown

New cases fell 50.7 per cent to an 18-day low of 1,487 infections in the past 24 hours, while the number of patients showing symptoms declined by 2.6 per cent to 228

As many as 612,500 people in the city of 25 million residents have caught the disease since March 1, most of them asymptomatic

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A resident and a child look out through gaps in the barriers at a closed residential area during lockdown in Shanghai on May 10, 2022. Photo: Reuters.

Published: 11:52am, 11 May 2022Updated: 1:10pm, 31 May 2022

New Covid-19 cases in Shanghai halved overnight, staying below five digits for the 13th straight day, as innumerable rounds of mass tests raised hopes that the current outbreak may be nearing its end, almost six weeks after sending China’s commercial hub into lockdown.

New cases fell 50.7 per cent to an 18-day low of 1,487 infections in the past 24 hours, while the number of patients showing symptoms declined by 2.6 per cent to 228, with seven deaths, according to data released on Wednesday.

“It is a good sign that the number of infections in Shanghai maintained a downward spiral,” said Zhang Chaoyue, an analyst with Northeast Securities. “The good news is that the single-day numbers showed Shanghai might have achieved the so-called societal zero-Covid goal.”

Infections of the highly transmissible Omicron variant had been in steady decline in Shanghai since April 23, holding below 5,000 cases for the past eight days. As many as 612,500 people in the city of 25 million residents have caught the disease since March 1, most of them asymptomatic. The death toll since April 18 has risen to 560, translating to a fatality rate of 0.09 per cent of the infected.

Medical staff from Tianjin worked in Shanghai to conduct Covid-19 tests on May 9, 2022. Photo: Xinhua.

Local authorities enforced a two-day “static management” order this week across the city’s so-called precautionary zones, instructing residents to remain homebound and curbing the movements of medical staff, delivery personnel and community volunteers, even if those areas had not reported a single infection in the past 14 days.

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