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Learning from Shanghai: what not to do in an Omicron crisis
- The financial hub kept Covid-19 under control without mass testing and mass lockdowns – until it didn’t
- Other cities are taking their cues and moving faster
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For Shanghai, the worst appears to have passed.
After more than a month of locking down the entire city, Covid-19 restrictions are easing in response to a decline in new infections and other signs that the spread of the disease is slowing.
But that is not all that has fallen. In the short time that China’s financial centre has registered more than 600,000 cases, its reputation as a model city in tackling the coronavirus has plummeted to being a salutary lesson on what not to do.
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“Shanghai was potentially a test bed for a more flexible zero-Covid strategy – one that would allow China to live with the virus,” said Nicholas Thomas, an associate professor at City University of Hong Kong.
“Unfortunately, logistical and communication gaps prevented that ambition from being successfully realised.”
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How Covid shut down Shanghai
How Covid shut down Shanghai
Shanghai started the year with a “targeted and refined” approach to containing Covid-19. Instead of sweeping closures and mass testing when cases were detected, Shanghai targeted smaller areas such as neighbourhoods and buildings – even down to a single bubble tea shop.
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