Omicron: Shanghai lockdown needed to stop ‘serious’ community spread, experts say
- Financial hub has been split in half as authorities try to contain worst outbreak
- Arrangement seen as ‘good way to avoid the city coming to a complete standstill’
Shanghai reported 3,500 new locally transmitted cases on Monday, most of them with mild or no symptoms. More than 10,000 infections have been found through mass testing in the past week – over 9,900 of them asymptomatic.
Lu Hongzhou, an infectious disease specialist who was previously based in Shanghai and now heads Shenzhen’s medical expert team on pandemic control, said the virus had spread widely in Shanghai and it was affecting people’s lives and creating a burden on the health system.
He said mass testing was necessary to identify asymptomatic infections and cut the transmission chains by isolating cases.
“If [the outbreak] drags on longer, its impact on Shanghai’s economy will be even greater,” Lu said.
The city of nearly 25 million people had until this month been held up as a model for others, with just 400 cases and seven deaths since the pandemic began. More than 95 per cent of residents have been fully vaccinated.