Shanghai, China’s most populous city, tightened again on Tuesday the first phase of a two-phase Covid-19 lockdown, asking some residents to stay inside bars to be tested as the number of daily cases grew beyond 4,400.
China’s financial center, home to 26 million people, is in its second day of a lockdown, in which local authorities are dividing the city roughly along the Huangpu River, dividing the historic center from the eastern industrial and commercial district of Pudong. to allow staggered testing.
While the number of cases in Shanghai remains modest by global standards — a record 4,381 asymptomatic cases and 96 symptomatic cases as of March 28 — the city has become a testing ground for the country’s “zero-Covid” strategy as it tries to bring under control the highly infectious Omicron variant.
Residents east of Huangpu were initially locked in housing projects on Monday, but in most cases were allowed to move internally. On Tuesday, however, two residents told Reuters they had been told by their neighborhood committees that they were no longer allowed to leave their homes.
“Kids were still having picnics yesterday and having fun,” said one, who declined to be named citing privacy concerns.
Drone footage published by Chinese state media showed deserted streets around the skyscrapers of the Lujiazui financial district in Pudong. Public transport in the east was closed, and all unapproved vehicles were banned.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange, in the western part of the city, said it had kept staff inside its building only for key positions such as business operations and the technical system, while others worked from home.
Residents of the western part of the city continued to rush to grocery stores and vegetable markets to stock up on food in anticipation of the restrictions start date on April 1, with long lines and crowds.
However, US hypermarket chain Costco Wholesale Corp, whose Shanghai store has attracted long lines of shoppers in recent days, said it would be closing from Tuesday before the lockdown, along with some gyms and shopping malls that are also in operation. in the western districts of Shanghai.
Source: CNN Brasil
