Shanghai lockdown: Pudong orders Covid-19 tests for 5.7 million residents in countdown towards end of citywide lockdown on June 1

Shanghai stepped up mass tests across the city, ordering more residents to undergo nucleic acid screening for the Omicron variant of Covid-19, as the city begins a countdown to end the two-month citywide lockdown on June 1.

Daily new infections fell 21.9 per cent to 264 cases in the past 24 hours, the sixth day of declines, according to data released on Friday. Cases showing symptoms dipped 6.2 per cent to 45, the third day that the number stayed below 50. One patient died, unchanged from a day earlier.

Local authorities are not letting up their vigilance, with Pudong’s district government ordering all 5.7 million residents within their jurisdiction to test for Covid-19 on Friday. The 1,200-square kilometre area east of the Huangpu River is home to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Walt Disney’s Shanghai Disneyland resort, Tesla’s Gigafactory3 and the treasury operation of almost every bank in China.

“We must keep our focus on virus prevention and a concerted effort in the battle against the outbreak,” the district government said in a statement on Thursday night. “We will strive to return business and life to normality as soon as possible.”

No community infection was discovered on Thursday, indicating that China’s commercial and financial hub of 25 million people had managed to contain the spread of infections among people who are already under quarantine.