Coronavirus: Shanghai posts falling Covid-19 infections, symptomatic cases and death toll as city takes another tentative step towards recovery

Shanghai’s Covid-19 infections, symptomatic cases and fatalities declined, in another sign that its drastic citywide lockdown and innumerable mass tests since April 1 were slowly taking the city towards recovery from the current outbreak.

New Covid-19 infections fell for the 19th straight day, dropping 2.6 per cent to 1,449 cases in the past 24 hours, according to data released on Thursday. Symptomatic cases shrank by 36.8 per cent to 144 while five patients died, compared with seven deaths a day earlier. It was the 12th time since April 27 that all three counts declined.

“The outbreak is showing signs of ebbing, and it is a positive trend,” Shanghai’s health commission deputy director Zhao Dandan said during a press briefing.

The declining infection numbers led to renewed calls by residents and businesses for Shanghai’s authorities to relax some of the lockdown and standstill orders around the city. Supply chains have been strained to breaking point by a halt in the production of vital parts in China’s commercial hub.

Up to 614,000 people in the city of 25 million residents have caught Covid-19 since March 1, most of them asymptomatic. Its cumulative death toll stood at 565, or 0.09 per cent of infections.

The government, however, has shown no signs of relaxing its strict containment measures. Zhao said on Thursday that, “No let-up is allowed, because any new infections can reverse the [declining] trend.”