China has dispatched almost 10,000 health professionals from throughout the nation to Shanghai, including 2,000 military personnel, as part of its zero-COVID plan to combat a fast-expanding outbreak in the country's largest metropolis.
Shanghai's 25 million people were subjected to mass testing on Monday, as the city's two-week-long lockdown started its second week. The eastern half of Shanghai, which was expected to reopen last Friday, remained closed, as did the western half.
COVID-19 Omicron Variant Tests China's Strategy
While many industrial and financial firms have been permitted to continue running if their staff is isolated, fears were mounting about the economic implications of a prolonged lockdown in China's financial capital, which is also a key shipping and manufacturing hub.
The extremely contagious Omicron BA.2 strain of the virus is putting China's zero-COVID-19 policy to the test, which attempts to prevent outbreaks by isolating everyone who tests positive, whether or not they have symptoms. People with minor or no symptoms are lodged in a sea of beds divided by temporary barriers in Shanghai's exposition hall and other facilities.
On Monday, China recorded more than 13,000 new cases across the country in the preceding 24 hours, over 12,000 of which were asymptomatic. In Shanghai, almost 9,000 cases were reported. The other significant outbreak is in Jilin Province in northeastern China, where new cases have surpassed 3,500, as per New York Post.
On Monday evening, officials declared that transportation networks would be further restricted and that further subway lines would be shut.
Sun Chunlan, China's vice-premier in charge of the COVID-19 response, warned that preventive and control efforts in Shanghai are at a critical moment and that every citizen must be tested, according to Sky News.
Children Are Separated From Parents as China's COVID-19 Surges
Last week, city officials admitted to failings in their response, with Shanghai municipal people's government secretary-general Ma Chunlei apologizing on Thursday for not being sufficiently prepared for the pandemic. Residents have continued to use social media in recent days to discuss difficulties obtaining things, including getting up early in the morning to place orders for limited supplies.
Over the weekend, the further outcry over isolation measures erupted as photographs of a packed, understaffed Shanghai hospital ward for children with COVID-19 who had been removed from their families owing to isolation restrictions surfaced.
The photographs were taken when the hospital was shifting the usual pediatric ward to the outpatient and emergency facility, where additional pediatric medical staff have been deployed, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center subsequently stated in a statement.
However, the policy itself has created substantial concern among parents, as it compels all patients who test positive to be separated in facilities, including young children and newborns. As the citywide mass testing continues and the majority of the city remains under lockdown, the issue of when Shanghai will be allowed to relax its limitations looms.
The limitations have had an impact on the city's economy, as backlogs and travel delays have grown. The city is China's financial center and home to the world's biggest container port, so the authorities will be concerned about the long-term consequences of a prolonged shutdown.
However, the city's case count has failed to decline, and a similar situation is unfolding in northern Jilin province, which launched more stringent disease control efforts in March. The outbreaks, the country's largest in over two years, are the first time China's control procedures have been put to the test against the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.2, CNN reported.
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