“If the city came to a complete stop, there would be a lot of international cargo left floating on the East China Sea, which would have an impact on the national and global economy. All Shanghai citizens should have such a big picture view.”

04:19

Locked down in Shanghai: China’s biggest city grapples with its worst Covid outbreak since 2020

Locked down in Shanghai: China’s biggest city grapples with its worst Covid outbreak since 2020

The assessment came as the city recorded 2,269 new coronavirus cases, including 2,231 people yet to show symptoms, the highest total in the three-week outbreak.

Nearly 500 infections were found during mass screening among people not in quarantine, suggesting fresh chains of transmission.

Until the outbreak, Shanghai had been held up as a model of a targeted, fine-tuned response.

While other cities went into mass lockdown in response to the outbreaks by the highly transmittable Omicron variant, Shanghai divided neighbourhoods into grids with selected travel restrictions to avoid bringing the entire city to a halt.

However, more often than not, the restrictions were prolonged and the surge shook public confidence in the effectiveness of the rolling mass screening process.

Some frustrated residents called for a broader lockdown to end the predicament quickly but Wu said cases were not growing at an exponential growth, meaning the public intervention worked, despite the “low-level prevalence” of the coronavirus.

“The most important feature of RAT kits is quick response, which is very important,” Wu said.

Shanghai nurse dies of asthma after Covid-19 closed emergency department

In the last three weeks, the city has found more than 9,700 local cases, most of them asymptomatic, putting pressure on the city’s health system.

Some hospitals have been shut down daily for disinfection or isolation in response to positive tests among patients.

On Wednesday, a nurse having an asthma attack died trying to find a hospital that was open.

Wu Jinglei, director of Shanghai’s health commission, said hospitals must set aside specific areas, rather than seal off entire facilities in response to Covid-19.

Emergency rooms, fever clinics, operating theatres, intensive care units and delivery rooms should not be closed unless absolutely necessary.

Top-tier general hospitals, emergency rooms and children’s hospital clinics should also not stop services at will, he said.

The city has converted seven low-level hospitals and stadiums to isolate asymptomatic and mild cases. Medical teams of higher-level hospitals have taken over such facilities to provide medical services and dispense medication.

“These people [with milder cases] need clinical observation and follow-up and also appropriate medical services. They are basically taking traditional Chinese medicine. Some also need to have their underlying diseases treated,” Wu Jinglei said.

02:23

China’s Jilin province remains Covid-19 epicentre of country’s latest pandemic wave

China’s Jilin province remains Covid-19 epicentre of country’s latest pandemic wave

Across China, 5,600 new confirmed local cases were reported on Saturday, 4,320 of them asymptomatic.

Cases have been detected in 28 provinces this month, with Omicron’s high transmissibility posing the toughest challenge yet to China’s dynamic zero-Covid strategy.

The variant has also resulted in largely milder or asymptomatic infections, raising questions about the need for such all-out efforts to contain it.

But top leaders continue to insist that it is still the best approach to “safeguard health and life”.

Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who has spent the last two weeks in hard-hit Jilin province, urged Jilin city to deploy citywide testing, lockdowns and contact tracing to ensure no new infections were found beyond people already in quarantine.