Coronavirus: Shanghai’s community infections return a day after formal lockdown exit, sending some areas back into quarantine
- Seven community infections of Covid-19 found, with three of the cases showing symptoms
- Shanghai’s health commissioner urges residents to observe social distancing, wear masks and avoid crowding to prevent a resurgence of the disease
Shanghai’s health authorities found seven community infections of Covid-19 for the first time in three days after formally ending the city’s lockdown, in a setback that underscores the challenges in completely blocking out the Omicron variant in one of the most congested cities on Earth.
Three of the seven cases in the Pudong and Jing’an districts showed symptoms, health authorities said at a press briefing. Earlier in the day, authorities announced that daily new cases had fallen 13.3 per cent to 13 cases in the previous 24 hours, while five cases showed symptoms of the disease.
All 26 close contacts of the infected patients had been put under quarantine, where 21 had tested negative for Omicron, officials said.
Two residential compounds in Pudong and two in the Caojiadu subdistrict of Jing’an were classified as “medium-risk” areas, requiring residents to be confined to their homes for 14 days, said Shanghai’s health commissioner Wu Jinglei.
“Shanghai has entered a new phase with the focus on restoring life and businesses, but we still face risks of resurgent cases,” Wu said. “We must adhere unswervingly to the zero-Covid policy in trying to eliminate the virus.”