Covid 19: China begins most extensive lockdown in Shanghai to tackle outbreak
Beijing, March 28: Amid increasing Covid-19 cases, China began its most extensive lockdown in two years on Monday to conduct mass testing and control the growing outbreak in Shanghai.
Shanghai, China's financial capital and largest city with 26 million people, had managed its smaller, past outbreaks with limited lockdowns of housing compounds and workplaces where Covid-19 was spreading.
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However, the citywide lockdown that will be conducted in two phases will be China's most extensive since the central city of Wuhan, where the virus first detected in late 2019.
Shanghai's financial district Pudong and nearby areas will be locked down from Monday to Friday as mass testing gets underway, the local government said.
In the second phase of the lockdown, the vast downtown area west of the Huangpu River that divides the city will start its own five-day lockdown on Friday.
Residents will be required to stay home and deliveries will be left at checkpoints to ensure there is no contact with the outside world. Offices and all businesses not considered essential will be closed and public transport suspended.
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Shanghai's Disneyland theme park is among the businesses that closed earlier. Automaker Tesla is also suspending production at its Shanghai plant, according to media reports.
On Sunday, people resorted to panic-buying. Shanghai reported 3,500 cases of infection on Sunday, though all but 50 persons who tested positive were not showing symptoms of Covid-19.
China has called its long-standing “zero-tolerance” approach the most economical and effective prevention strategy against Covid-19. With a 21-day curfew in place for all foreigners arriving from abroad, travel between China and other countries has fallen dramatically.
-PTC News with agency inputs
