Coronavirus: a city divided, as China’s financial hub Shanghai goes into lockdown
- Millions subject to stay-at-home orders as restrictions begin to the east of the Huangpu River, with the west to follow
- City is grappling with its worst outbreak, reporting 3,500 new local cases on Monday – almost all with mild or no symptoms
For the next four days, residents will be confined to their neighbourhoods and all public transport and private cars are barred from travelling between Pudong and Puxi, though deliveries and other essential transport will continue.
In the second stage, Puxi – to the west of the Huangpu River – will go into lockdown for four days from Friday.
It came as southern tech hub Shenzhen said all operations and production would resume on Sunday, after ending a week-long lockdown.
Shanghai is grappling with its worst outbreak of Covid-19, reporting 3,500 new locally transmitted cases on Monday – almost all with mild or no symptoms. Across the country, 1,219 local cases were reported – most in the northeastern province of Jilin – and there were 4,996 local asymptomatic infections, many of them in Shanghai.
Wu Jinglei, director of Shanghai’s health commission, said there would be two rounds of mass testing in locked down areas, and routine screening would continue elsewhere.