Chinese cities impose mass testing for Covid and extend lockdown

Several major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, are launching mass new tests or extending lockdowns on millions of residents to fight new outbreaks of Covid-19 infections, with some measures being criticized on the internet.

China recorded an average of about 390 daily local infections in the seven days ending Sunday, up from about 340 seven days earlier, according to Reuters calculations based on official data on Monday.

While this is small compared to an increase in cases elsewhere in Asia, China is adamant in its zero-tolerance Covid-19 policy of eliminating outbreaks as soon as they arise.

Previously, when there was a major outbreak, local authorities were forced to take tougher measures, such as month-long lockdowns, even at the expense of economic growth.

Persistent outbreaks and more closures could add to pressure on the world’s second-largest economy, which contracted sharply in the second quarter from the first after widespread Covid lockdowns dented industrial production and consumer spending.

Shanghai, the country’s commercial hub that has yet to fully recover from the harsh two-month lockdown and still reports sporadic cases daily, plans to carry out mass testing in many of its 16 districts and in some smaller areas where new infections have been reported recently after testing. similar last week.

“There is still a risk of an epidemic at the community level,” the city government said in a statement.

Shanghai has reported more than a dozen new cases, but none have been found outside the quarantined areas, local government data showed on Monday.

“I’m speechless,” said a Shanghai resident surnamed Wang, already subjected to tests every weekend at his residential complex. “It seems like a waste of resources that doesn’t solve the real problem.”